Francesco Pozzi (plasterer)

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Francesco Pozzi, painted by his son Domenico

Francesco Pozzi (born February 11, 1704 in Bruzella , Ticino ; † January 20, 1789 in Castel San Pietro ) belongs to the Pozzi family of artists , whose members often worked in Germany and, like him, mostly as plasterers .

Pozzi is not to be confused with the copper engraver Francesco Pozzi (1750–1805) from Rome and the sculptor and wax artist Francesco Pozzi (1779–1844), professor at the Art Academy in Florence.

origin

The village of Bruzella today has just 180 inhabitants. Like many places in southern Ticino, it has a long tradition of traveling craftsmen . Given the limited possibilities on site, this was due to the special legal protection of the local craftsmen and above all to the excellent work opportunities that were found in the wider area. First, in the Middle Ages, the church and the monasteries appeared as employers, for example in Milan , Monza or Pavia . The strengthening of the city-states in Italy and the artistic boom in the Renaissance period then led to hundreds of Ticino builders working in northern Italy, in Genoa , Florence , Venice and, above all, Rome . From 1494 to 1559 Italy became a European theater of war . This led to a decline in construction activity. New job opportunities arose temporarily in Eastern Europe, where engineers were needed to build fortresses. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, large parts of Europe had to be rebuilt. In addition, the tsars began to erect palaces and public buildings in Russia.

The stonemasons, architects, painters and plasterers from Ticino, who were related to one another in many ways, formed large working groups in order to provide and support one another in foreign countries. Some stayed in their adopted home, but many migrated back to their homeland every winter when the construction work stopped.

Life

Francesco Pozzi was born in the late baroque and early rococo periods , a time of exuberant ornamentation. The choice of the plasterer was therefore economically sensible for him, but above all it was obvious because his relatives also practiced this profession. It is not certain whether this also applied to his father and his paternal grandfather; after all, both were married to the daughters of plasterers. On the maternal side, in any case, the grandfather Antonio Carabelli, the uncle Giovan Albino Carabelli and the great-uncle Giovan Pietro Magni were plasterers. It is conceivable that the latter took over his apprenticeship, because during this time he retired back home after a long period of work in the Upper and Lower Franconia area.

In 1728 Pozzi married Ursula Pettondi, who also came from a family of artists. This marriage gave birth to ten children, three of whom died young. At the age of 52, Pozzi was finally able to settle in his homeland, where he bought land, houses and vineyards for his now very large family (his daughter Giuseppa alone had nine children) and held public municipal offices. After his wife's death, he married a second time in 1776.

Pozzi's four daughters married artisans. The three sons, whom he first taught himself, also embarked on an artistic career: Giuseppe (1732–1811) became court plasterer in Mannheim, where he also settled, Carlo Luca (1734–1812) became a sculptor and plasterer, Domenico (1745– 1796) became a history and portrait painter. The portrait of his father shown above has survived in the family.

plant

Altshausen Castle Church

It is conceivable that after his apprenticeship, Pozzi worked in the workshop of Giovan Battista Clerici (1673–1736) between around 1721 and 1729, namely in the castles of Mannheim and Schwetzingen and in the monastery of St. Peter in the Black Forest . In 1729 Pozzi and his team of stucco workers were first mentioned by name, namely in collaboration with the master builder Johann Caspar Bagnato near Altshausen . Bagnato, whose ancestors also came from Ticino, worked for the Deutschordensballei Swabia-Alsace-Burgundy and was a general contractor who was responsible for entire buildings from the shell to the interior design. Pozzi and the fresco painter Giuseppe Appiani remained connected not only to Bagnato until his death, but later also to his son Franz Anton Bagnato . Pozzi was an “excellent employee” of Bagnato, who also worked with the plasterer Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer , “who, however, surpassed Pozzi in terms of quality (and probably also price).” With Pozzi, “his sense of space is particularly noticeable, not just in the literal sense in general, but also within the individual structures and the ceiling stucco in relation to the free surface ... The shapes themselves are as physical, as compressed, they can also be so light and lively ... The air around them is not heavy. It is rousing and at the same time fiery, is shining, but it can also spray very gently, blow away. "

Other works by Pozzi:

  • Mainau Castle and Church (1737–1740): Bagnato used Pozzi (partly together with Giuseppe Maria Clerici) for the wall and ceiling ornaments, Feuchtmayer for the altars and Franz Josef Spiegler for the frescoes. He himself died here in 1757 while carrying out further work and is buried in the church.
St. Remigius in Merdingen
  • Parish Church of St. Remigius Merdingen (1741). Bagnato worked with the same team as on the Mainau. “Such delicious details as the child angel of the choir dome painting, which (half painted, half sitting in stucco on the base frame) gives the viewer the impression that heaven itself has connected with the created space, were only possible because everyone involved had the will to create a work of art together. "
  • Beuggen Castle (1752–1757): Bagnato expanded the former commander of the Teutonic Order, with Pozzi doing the portal and the stucco decoration inside.
  • Obermarchtal Abbey (1753–1756): The Bagnato / Pozzi / Appiani team worked here for three years on the baroque decoration of the medieval monastery buildings. The refectory became “the most beautiful of the Upper Swabian Baroque”. Pozzi's two sons, especially Giuseppe, were already involved in the work. This also applies to the other works that were created at the same time: Parish Church of St. Afra Obernheim (1753–1755), Chapel of St. Georg Dietershausen (1754) and Parish Church of Unterwachingen (1754).
  • Arlesheim Cathedral (1759–1763): Pozzi, who had already retired, received an offer from Bagnatos' son, Franz Anton, to decorate the entire interior, the main altar, of the cathedral, which was only 80 years old but in need of restoration To take over six side altars and the pulpit: a huge task due to the size of the building, which the 55-year-old artist mastered in three years of work together with his sons and again in collaboration with Appiani. He had nine different types of real marble brought in for the pulpit and altars alone.
  • St. Ursenkathedrale Solothurn (1768–1771): Following Arlesheim, Pozzi had agreed with the city council to help solve the problems that arose during the construction of the cathedral. He was involved in the planning while the stucco work of the church, the eleven altars and the pulpit was actually carried out by his sons (the halo in the choir was subsequently carried out by Carlo Luca from 1789 to 1790; the three ceiling medallions were painted by Domenico). “It was probably not just the advanced age that moved Francesco to let his sons go first. Rather, artistic taste tended to turn away from the lavish baroque ornamentation towards the clear, stricter forms of classicism . "

  • Mainau Castle Church

  • Entrance portal of Beuggen Castle

  • St. Ursus Cathedral Solothurn

  • Arlesheim Cathedral

literature

  • Ivano Proserpi: Francesco Pozzi. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . July 9, 2010 , accessed January 16, 2020 .
  • Ursula Stevens: Francesco Pozzi. A hiking plasterer from Ticino. Mendrisio 2007 ( artistiticinesi-ineuropa.ch PDF; 2.0 MB).
  • Hans-Rudolf Heyer: Francesco Pozzi, the plasterer of the Arlesheim Cathedral and the St. Ursen Church in Solothurn . In: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History . tape 24 , Issue 1, 1966, ISSN  0044-3476 , p. 16-26 .
  • Hans-Rudolf Heyer: On the rediscovery of Francesco Pozzi as plasterer for the cathedral in Arlesheim . In: Our art monuments . tape 15 , 1964, ISSN  0566-263X , p. 99-100 .
  • Werner von Matthey: Francesco Pozzi, a Ticino artist in Upper Swabia. In: Newsletter of the preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. Issue 6, 1963, pp. 16-19 ( uni-heidelberg.de ).
  • Pozzi, Francesco . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 27 : Piermaria – Ramsdell . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1933, p. 333 .
  • Pozzi, Francesco . In: Georg Kaspar Nagler (ed.): New general artist lexicon… Volume 12 : Poyet, Bernard – Renesse, Daniel . EA Fleischmann, Munich 1835, p. 4 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - Different life dates): "[...] was born in 1700 at Castel St. Pietro in the Bailiwick of Mendrisio [...] died in 1784 in his place of birth."

Web links

Commons : Francesco Pozzi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Stevens: On the history of emigration. 2010 ( artistiticinesi-ineuropa.ch ).
  2. ↑ Ursula Stevens: Francesco Pozzi. A hiking plasterer from Ticino. P. 16.
  3. ↑ Ursula Stevens: Francesco Pozzi. A hiking plasterer from Ticino. P. 44 f.
  4. ↑ Ursula Stevens: Francesco Pozzi. A hiking plasterer from Ticino. Cover photo.
  5. ↑ Ursula Stevens: Francesco Pozzi. A hiking plasterer from Ticino. P. 18.
  6. ^ Hermann Brommer : Parish Church of St. Remigius, Merdingen. Kunstverlag Josef Fink 2007, p. 5.
  7. ^ Anton Josef Martin, Gerd Schaupp: The new Propstei Bürgeln. 2012, p. 7.
  8. ↑ Werner v. Matthey: Francesco Pozzi, a Ticino artist in Upper Swabia. P. 18 f.
  9. ^ A b Anton Josef Martin, Gerd Schaupp: The new Propstei Bürgeln. P. 9.
  10. ^ Hermann Brommer: Parish Church of St. Remigius, Merdingen. P. 15 f.
  11. ↑ Ursula Stevens: Francesco Pozzi. A hiking plasterer from Ticino. P. 40 ff.
  12. ↑ Ursula Stevens: Francesco Pozzi. A hiking plasterer from Ticino. P. 61.
personal data
SURNAME Pozzi, Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pozzi, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ticino plasterer
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1704
PLACE OF BIRTH Bruzella , Ticino
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1789
Place of death Castel San Pietro