Balthasar Mang

Detail from the ceiling fresco from the Buchbach church of St. Jakobus d. Elderly

Balthasar Mang (* 1720 in Arget in Sauerlach , † 1803 in Buchenbach ), and Balthasar Mang the Elder, was a German church painter and fresco painter of the Rococo .

Live and act

Balthasar Mang was baptized on January 8, 1720 in Arget in what is now the district of Munich . However, as was customary at the time, his date of birth is not recorded in the parish registers. He was the second child of the shoemaker Erasmus Mang (* 1690) and his wife Anna, b. Seidl from Niederham. His older sister Anastasia probably died as a toddler, because four years after Mang's birth, the parents had a girl baptized with the same name.

Incidentally, little is known about Mang's artistic training. It is believed that he attended a Jesuit college as he mastered the Latin language. In addition, he took part in current events at that time, which numerous comments and notes on the church and political changes on his sketches prove. For example, on a sketch he noted the repeal of the Jesuit order by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. At the age of 24, Mang came to Buchbach in the Upper Bavarian district of Mühldorf am Inn in 1754 . There he married Theresia Edterin, the widow of the local painter Joseph Domenicus Mezole. The marriage with the painter's widow was the opportunity for Mang to receive the painter's fairness - that is, the guild right to practice the painter's profession. Theresa soon died, however, because in 1757 Balthasar Mang remarried, a Maria Anna from Wasserburg am Inn . He had eight children with her.

Damian Hugo Philipp von Lehrbach , portrayed by Balthasar Mang in 1791

Mang owed his greatest commission to a devastating fire, which on May 25, 1762, destroyed almost the entire town center of Markt Buchbach: the painting of the new Buchbach church of St. Jakobus with ceiling paintings and altars. In addition, he worked through numerous other commissioned works from Mühldorf to Buchbach, from Aschau im Chiemgau to Georgenzell in what is now the Landshut district . To this day, a good dozen ceiling and wall paintings in Upper Bavaria testify to his work. In addition, many sketches and drafts have been preserved. After Balthasar Mang's death, the Mang'sche workshop was continued in the 19th century by Heinrich Dagn , who had married into the family.

Private

With his second wife Maria Anna, Balthasar Mang had a total of eight children, five of which, however, did not survive early childhood. His sons Johann Evangelist Mang (born January 25, 1758) and Balthasar Mang the Younger (born March 11, 1764) also worked as painters.

Other works (selection)

• St. John the Baptist 1734, pen drawing in brown ink (11.7 × 8 cm)
• Last Supper 1769, pen drawing, washed (8.8 × 13.1 cm)
• Franciscan monk 1769, pen drawing, washed with getter (19.8 × 13.5 cm)
• Pope Clement XIV. 1774, pen drawing in brown ink (10.9 × 8.2 cm)
• Draft for Frauenornau 1779, pen drawing, colored watercolors (19.6 × 16.2 cm)
• Monastery Au 1788, pen drawing, colored watercolors (9.8 × 14.2 cm)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marieberthe Hoffmann-Falk: Balthasar Mang - A painter's life at the transition into a new time . Buchbach 2016, p. 4 .
2. ^ Marieberthe Hoffmann-Falk: Balthasar Mang - A painter's life at the transition into a new time . Buchbach 2016, p. 14 .
3. ^ Marieberthe Hoffmann-Falk: Balthasar Mang - A painter's life at the transition into a new time . Buchbach 2016, p. 7 .
4. ^ Sigfrid Hofmann: The churches of the parish Buchbach . In: Marktarchiv Buchbach (Hrsg.): Heimatgeschichten . tape 2 . Buchbach 2014, p. 11 .
5. ^ Marieberthe Hoffmann-Falk: Balthasar Mang - A painter's life at the transition into a new time . Buchbach 2016, p. 12 f .
6. ↑ Rudolf Spagl: Balthasar Mang and its paint shop in Buchenbach . In: The mill wheel . tape XIX . Mühldorf 1977, p. 85-105 .
7. ^ Marieberthe Hoffmann-Falk: Balthasar Mang - A painter's life at the transition into a new time . Buchbach 2016, p. 7 .