Desiderius Lenz

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Peter Lenz

Desiderius Lenz , born as Peter Lenz (* March 12, 1832 in Haigerloch ; † January 31, 1928 in Beuron Abbey ) was a German Benedictine , painter, architect and sculptor as well as one of the initiators and spokesmen of the Beuron art school .

Life

After an apprenticeship in his father's carpentry workshop, Lenz went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich as a pupil of Max von Widnmann and later Wilhelm von Kaulbach , and then later (after a brief activity as a freelance sculptor) in 1859 as a professor of sculpture at the School of Applied Arts to be appointed in Nuremberg. Later he broke off his successful career as a sculptor in order to take up a Prussian state scholarship for a stay in Italy at the intercession of Peter von Cornelius . The first drafts for an ideal church plan were made as early as 1866 . In 1868–70, Lenz was able to put his conception of art into reality for the first time when he was commissioned to build the St. Maurus im Felde chapel near the Benedictine monastery in Beuron. After several unsuccessful courtship schemes, he finally went to the Beuron Monastery in 1872, where numerous works of art and designs were created. In 1878 he finally joined the Benedictines, and in 1891 he was ordained as a subdiaconate . Together with his friends and fellow brothers Gabriel Wüger and Lukas Steiner, he is considered the founder of the Beuron art school , which shaped church art for decades.

Works (selection)

Draft for an angel showing the influence of Egyptian, early Christian and Byzantine art

Executed

  • Reliefondo Holy Family, 1857 (Beuron, monastery archive)
  • Sculpture of a Pietà, 1858/59 (whereabouts unknown)
  • Restoration of 3 stations of the cross by Adam Kraft in Nuremberg, 1859–62
  • 2 tombs in Nuremberg cemeteries, 1862

drafts

  • Chapel in Korschellen (East Prussia), 1866 f.
  • Altar in S. Alfonso, Rome
  • Cemetery border in Schlanders / South Tyrol 1866–68
  • Sculpture of a Holy Family, 1872–74 (Kolpinghaus Stuttgart)
  • Tabernacle for the Beuron high altar, 1874 (Beuron, monastery archive)
  • Equipment of an emergency church in Meßkirch, 1875
  • numerous drawings in the “studio folders” as well as in Lenz's sketchbooks and notebooks in the Beuron monastery archive.

Fonts

  • On the aesthetics of the Beuron school . Vienna 1897; 2nd edition Beuron 1927 (also in French and Dutch translation).
  • Aesthetics, Geometry and Church Art , 1914 (not delivered).
  • The canon , in: Benediktinische Monatsschrift 3 (1921), pp. 363–77.
  • Festschrift and festive poems for the 80th birthday of our former Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Heidenheim 1895.

literature

  • Gallus Schwind: P. Desiderius Lenz. Biographical commemorative sheets for his 100th birthday. Beuron / Hohenzollern 1932.
  • Maurus Pfaff: P. Desiderius Peter Lenz, the master of Beuron 1832-1928; Personality and work. Beuroner Kunstverlag, 1978 (from: Heritage and Order , 54.3)
  • Harald Siebenmorgen: The beginnings of the “Beuron Art School” : Peter Lenz and Jakob Wüger, 1850–1875; a contribution to the genesis of form abstraction in modern times. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1983. ISBN 3-7995-5028-3 . Zugl .: Freiburg (Breisgau), Diss., 1979.
  • Harald Siebenmorgen:  Lenz, Peter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 234 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Velten Wagner (ed.): Avant-garde and painter monk. Peter Lenz and the Beuron Art School . Catalog for the special exhibition Avant-garde and Painter Monk - Peter Lenz and the Beuron Art School, Städtisches Museum Engen 2007 . Quensen, Hildesheim 2007. ISBN 978-3-938816-03-5 .
  • Helena Čižinská: Beuronská umělecká škola - The Beuron Art School in the Abbey of St. Gabriel in Prague (bilingual edition). Ars Bohemica Praha 1999, ISBN 80-902381-4-9 .

Web links

Commons : Desiderius Lenz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reader's Digest Universal Lexicon . Volume 1, Verlag Das Beste, Stuttgart, 1966, p. 182
  2. ↑ Harald Siebenmorgen:  Lenz, Peter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 234 f. ( Digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Lenz, Desiderius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lenz, Peter (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Benedictine, painter, architect and sculptor as well as one of the initiators and spokesmen of the Beuron art school
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Haigerloch
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1928
Place of death Beuron Monastery