Balthasar Ableithner

Balthasar Ableithner (also Ableitner or Abendleyttner ; * 1614 in Loferer ( Miesbach ), † April 13, 1705 in Munich ) was a Bavarian sculptor . He is one of the most important sculptors of the high baroque and was court sculptor at the Bavarian electoral court. Together with Andreas Faistenberger , he is regarded as a pioneer of Bavarian art in its process of breaking away from Italian models and developing an independent formal language.

Life

Born as the son of the carpenter Hans Ableitner from Miesbach , he began an apprenticeship at the age of 13 with the ducal court sculptor Christoph Angermair in Munich , in whose workshop he stayed until 1633.

Already in 1633 by Duke Albrecht VI. Appointed court sculptor, he was in the service of the Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria from 1652/53 . He also received important commissions from his brother Maximilian Philipp .

Between 1635 and 1642 Ableithner got to know the Italian Baroque as a scholarship holder. He stayed in Rome , possibly also in Venice . In 1644 Balthasar Ableitner received the title of master craftsman and married Barbara Steinmair, whose father was a princely mouth cook. Between 1676 and 1680 he held the position of four in the Munich sculptors' guild.

One of Ableithner's journeymen was Andreas Faistenberger, who worked for him from 1668 after studying in Italy. Another employee was the painter Johann Andreas Wolff . Ableithner created wooden sculptures, stucco figures, silver work and carvings in ivory . In his oeuvre the development from Mannerism to the powerful Bavarian high baroque is evident .

Ableithner died at the age of 91 in Munich and was buried in the St. Salvator cemetery. His two sons Franz (1652–1728) and Johann Blasius (1650–1717) also worked as sculptors in Munich. A prominent joint effort is the group of evangelists in the chancel of the Theatine Church in Munich .

Johann Blasius Ableithner held the prominent rank as court sculptor for several years. Franz Ableithner was married to a daughter of the court painter Nikolaus Prugger , and thus a close relative of the Asam brothers .

Works

(as far as known)

• Golden ceiling in the Munich Residenz (destroyed)
• Monumental figures of St. Martinus and St. Castulus on the high altar in the Martinskirche in Landshut . Removed in the course of regotisation in 1858 and preserved by the Landshut Historical Society. Today on the back wall of the former Dominican monastery church in Landshut.
• Choir screen in the Munich Theatine Church , with monumental figures of the evangelists Markus, Lukas and Johannes.
• Statues at the high altar of St. Peter in Munich
• Portrait busts of the electoral family

(assigned)

• Stucco figures on the high altar (around 1686) of the monastery church of St. Benedikt (Benediktbeuern)
• Crucifixion group Kalvarienberg Possenhofen
• Minerva of the electoral Bavarian ship Bucentaur , exhibited in the Bavarian National Museum since 2015 .

literature

• Adolf Feulner : Munich Baroque Sculpture . Book and art publishing house Riehn and Reusch, Munich 192, p. 1 and plates 1 and 2.
• Gerhard Woeckel:  Ableithner (Abendleyttner), Balthasar. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 20 ( digitized version ).