The blessed well
The blessed fountain is a novella by the Austrian writer Franz Karl Ginzkey that first appeared in 1940. It is an artist novella that revolves around the person of Georg Raphael Donner and takes place in Vienna from 1706 to 1738. The focus is on the sculptor's youth and how the creation of his most famous work, the Providentiabrunnen on the Neuer Markt , came about . In addition, the atmosphere of the city and its late baroque culture is captured in the story.
content
The abbot of the Heiligenkreuz Abbey, Gerhard Weichselberger , became aware of the Eleven Georg Donner and apprenticed him to the monastery sculptor Johann Giuliani . Here the boy is already creating a female figure who appeared to him as an ideal in spirit and which he was to portray again and again later. Donner uses the stage name Raphael.
After his term as a monastery, we meet the young journeyman sculptor in Vienna. In contrast to the remote monastery, there is a colorful life and hustle and bustle here. Only a few years after the devastating Turkish siege , there is now a spirit of optimism in the city and a lot is being built. For the numerous new buildings, building sculptures are also required, which are produced as standard and without great artistic design. Donner rents a house on the Neuer Markt, which was then the flour market. There is a gingerbread shop on the ground floor; the house belongs to Mr. Neuhauser, who got rich at that time and owned several houses in Vienna. The older Neuhauser is now marrying a young woman and would like Donner to make a wax bust of her that he plans to set up in his office. When the artist sees Simonette, he is amazed to find that she is completely identical to the ideal that he carried within himself.
Donner had previously created a bust of Simonetten. Now she should be his model. He cannot control himself and confesses his love to her. She is probably attracted to him too, but explains to him that it cannot be. She, who was very poor herself, married Neuhauser because he gave her a comfortable life. She could never stand poverty.
In this inner distress, it is quite right for Donner that his father calls him home. He had settled as a carpenter in Essling in Marchfeld and remarried after the death of Georg's mother. The stepmother doesn't know Donner personally. He is now returning to his father's house for the first time in many years. While eating together, he met one of the stepmother's poor relatives, Elisabeth, an orphan whose father was the guardian. Georg then accompanies Elisabeth back to her house and spends the night there. Donner is only 21 years old. The two marry and Elisabeth receives a sum of money from her father as an inheritance.
The young couple lives in Vienna. Donner can take over the workshop after the death of Master Fruhwirth. Influential people become aware of the artist, not least thanks to Simonette. But thunder is out of her way. With Elisabeth's inheritance he succeeds in saving the workshop, which is in financial difficulties.
Many years later, Donner is Esterházyscher building director in Pressburg . When he comes back to Vienna on business, Simonette is already seriously ill. They see each other one last time, and Donner learns that she had always followed his life in the background. Simonette dies.
In 1738, Donner received an order from the City of Vienna to build a new fountain on the Mehlmarkt. Now he can finally realize what he had long dreamed of. He designs the Providentia fountain with the personification of foresight in the center, surrounded by fish from which the water flows. At the edges of the wide basin, in a semi-recumbent position, are the shapes of four rivers. The figure of March bears the features of Simonetten, that of Ybbs those of Elizabeth.
“So they will both arise in Erz, who accompanied him through a lifetime, Simonette who took care of him heavenly, Elisabeth who looked after him earthly ... A great blissful rest fills him. He knows that he has reached the goal that can only bring him redemption, he has found home in work. "
expenditure
- The blessed well. A Raphael Donner novella . Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 1940.
- The blessed well. A Raphael Donner novella . Bischoff, Berlin 1944.
- The blessed well. A Raphael Donner novella. Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 1949.
- Selected works in four volumes . Vol. 2 novellas. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1960.
literature
- Kurt Adel : Spirit and Reality. On the development of Austrian poetry . Österreichische Verlagsanstalt, Vienna 1967, p. 211.
- Felix Czeike : The New Market . Viennese history books. Vol. 4. Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 1970, p. 89.
- Austria in history and literature . Vol. 23. Stiasny Verlag, Vienna 1979, p. 9.