Clemens Winterhalder

Clemens Winterhalder (born November 23, 1668 in Kirchzarten , † after 1696) was a German artist of the Winterhalder family of sculptors who worked in Alsace . He worked in the baroque style . With his older brother Philipp (1667–1727) he carved - a discovery Hermann Brommers - the high altar of the Sebastian chapel in Dambach-la-Ville in Alsace, his only secured work.

Life

In addition to three girls, Philipp and Clemens were children of the Kirchzarten sculptor Johann Conrad Winterhalder (1640–1676) and Magdalena Hoffmännin (1629–1674). For her it was the second marriage. From her first marriage, with the Kirchzarten sculptor Johann Georg Hauser (1611–1660 / 61) ("Hauser II" after Hermann Brommer), the later sculptor Franz Hauser (1651-1717) ("Hauser III") emerged from seven children .

When their father died, Philipp and Clemens were only nine and seven years old. Initially, her grandfather, the sculptor Bartholomaeus Winterhalder (around 1613–1680) took care of her on the Oberfallengrundhof in Neukirch (Furtwangen in the Black Forest) . Then they learned the trade in the workshop of their stepbrother Franz Hauser ("Hauser III") in Freiburg im Breisgau . He had worked for some time in Schlettstadt in Alsace, France, and had a woman from Schlettstadt as his wife. On top of that, Freiburg has belonged to France since the Peace of Nijmegen in 1679 (and until the Peace of Rijswijk in 1697). That may have contributed to Philipp and Clemens going to Alsace after their apprenticeship years. In the invoices for the Dambach Altar they are mentioned from 1691 to 1693; after that, Clemens had a larger share of the altar. Like his brother, Clemens is also documented in Dambach baptism certificates (Latin and in Brommer's translation): “Patrinus fuit Dnus Clemens Winterhalder Adlsns quoque Brisgoius et artificiosus Sculptor pt hic Novi Altaris per Sacello S. Martyr. Sebastiani in eius monte hic. "-" Godfather was Mr. Clemens Winterhalder, the young man from the Breisgau and currently staying here, artful sculptor of the new altar for the chapel of the holy martyr Sebastian on his local mountain. "

The brothers later worked for the Benedictines - Abbey St. Mauritius in Ebersmünster . Clemens is attested there again as godfather, in 1693 and 1696. Hermann Brommer attributes the sculpture of Samson to him as the bearer of the pulpit (which, by the way, did not come from him). Philipp returned to Germany in the mid-1690s. Clemens' traces are lost after 1696.

plant

“The Dambacher choir altar, the most beautiful carved altarpiece from the 17th century preserved in Alsace, shows rich baroque.” For Brommer, Clemens is the artistically more important of the brothers and the Dambacher Sebastian Altar is “the most beautiful and most important 17th century altar preserved in Alsace ". In the face of all the splendor of the baroque decorations, "as an artistic highlight, the Godfather floating in the upper part of the altar is so perfectly designed in composition and execution that it alone would suffice to rank the master Clemens Winterhalder among the most important artists of the late 17th century". The Samson is "undeniably the most valuable sculpture in Ebersmünster, ... an elaboration that involuntarily brings to mind the master of the Dambach Altarpiece."

literature

• Hermann Brommer: Philipp and Clemens Winterhalder. The sculptors of the Sebastian altar in Dambach in Alsace. In: The Minster. 1971; 24: pp. 234-239.
• Hermann Brommer: Philipp Winterhalder (1667–1727). In: The Ortenau. 1974, 54: pp. 54-113.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brommer 1971, pp. 236-237.
2. ^ René Haberer, Lucien Gall and Pierre Siegel: St Sébastien / Dambach-la-Ville. 4th edition. Munich and Zurich, Schnell & Steiner 1982
3. ↑ Brommer 1974, p. 61.
4. ↑ Brommer 1974, p. 63.