Franz Anton Maulbertsch

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Early self-portrait , around 1750, Belvedere , Vienna
Martin Johann Schmidt : Franz Anton Maulbertsch, around 1764.
The Academy with its attributes at Minerva's feet , 1750, Belvedere , Vienna
The Holy Tribe , 1755, Belvedere , Vienna
The erection of the cross , around 1757/1758, Belvedere , Vienna
Adoration of the Shepherds, fresco (detail). 1758, Sümeg parish church .
Glorification of Emperor Joseph II , before 1777, Belvedere , Vienna
Annunciation (study), Bishop's Palace Szombathely / Steinamanger.

Franz Anton Maulbertsch (baptized June 7, 1724 in Langenargen on Lake Constance ; † August 8, 1796 in Vienna ; also Maulpertsch ) was next to Martin Johann Schmidt the most outstanding painter of the Austrian late baroque . His expressive art first broke with tradition, finally culminated in Classicism and completed painting of the Austrian Baroque in an idiosyncratic and independent way.

life and work

Franz Anton Maulbertsch was the son of the painter Anton Maulbertsch . Franz Anton studied from 1739 to 1741 at the Academy in Vienna under Jacob van Schuppen . In 1750 he won first prize in the academy's painting competition. He was inspired by various Italian painters, but also by Rembrandt , whose work he knew from copper engravings . In 1757 he was proposed as a professor, but rejected as "too bold a spirit". It was not until 1770 that he was appointed to the council of the academy.

From 1750 to 1751 he painted Triumph of Truth Over Time , a large oil painting for the ballroom ceiling of Kirchstetten Castle . His first fresco commission in 1752 is considered one of his main works: the five dome frescoes of the Piarist Church Maria Treu in Vienna's Josefstadt, completed in 1753 . In the center is a depiction of the Assumption of Mary into heaven, while the edge depicts scenes from the Old and New Testaments. All figures are intertwined, like in a surging river; in the composition the color dominates over the contour. The construction, which is in the foreground with Daniel Gran , the early Paul Troger and later with Classicism , takes a back seat in favor of the play of light and color.

In the 1750s and 1760s Maulbertsch worked mainly in Hungary and the eastern parts of Austria, producing the imposing frescoes (Visitatio Mariae et Triumphus Trinitatis) of the Waizen Cathedral : as a fresco in the castles of Ebenfurth and Halbturn , in the pilgrimage church of Heiligenkreuz-Gutenbrunn , the Hundsturm chapel and in the parish churches of Schwechat and Sümeg . In 1758 he made the altarpiece with the Assumption of Mary for the Abbey of Altmünster (Mainz) , which hangs today in St. Quintin (Mainz) .

In 1767 Maulbertsch received orders again in Vienna, whereby he increasingly approached the classicist zeitgeist. His ceiling fresco in the Johannessaal of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (formerly New Aula of the University of Vienna) shows Christ standing in a mountain stream at baptism, which is also depicted as rushing water with masterful nuances of color. His last major court commission in 1772 was the ceiling fresco in the giant hall of the Hofburg in Innsbruck , which depicts the union of the Houses of Habsburg and Lorraine to form the House of Habsburg-Lothringen . In this large fresco, the classical elements are in the foreground, which probably has to do with the fact that Joseph von Sperges (the editor of Winckelmann ) was the author of the program.

The frescoes and stucco work of the Cathedral of Steinamanger , created in the last years of his life, were destroyed in the Second World War. In contrast, the Stephanus ceiling frescoes in the St. Stephen's Church in Pápa , consecrated in 1795, have been completely preserved.

Maulbertsch's virtuoso color treatment and the anticlassical trait are also evident in his oil paintings, for example in the case of the Holy Tribe or in the painting that was formerly regarded as a self-portrait , both in the Belvedere in Vienna. The latter represents a so far not clearly identified artist colleague with typical accessories.

The virtuoso handling of color and light effects anticipates in many respects already Impressionism , whose descendants of late baroque art come to light here. Even if Maulbertsch did not quite maintain his own radicalism and even adopted classical tendencies at the end of his life, he was an important inspirer of the art of Austrian modernism. Oskar Kokoschka claimed that he was a role model.

In 1961 Maulbertschgasse in Vienna- Döbling (19th district) was named after him.

Works (selection)

  • Early self-portrait, oil on canvas, around 1750, Belvedere , Vienna.
  • The Academy with its attributes at Minerva's feet, oil on canvas, 1750, Belvedere, Vienna.
  • Dome frescoes in the Piarist Church Maria Treu , Vienna, 1752/53.
  • Ceiling fresco in the chapel, Ebenfurth Castle , 1754.
  • Holy Kinship, oil on canvas, around 1755, Belvedere, Vienna.
  • Ceiling frescoes in the pilgrimage church Heiligenkreuz-Gutenbrunn , 1756/57.
  • Ceiling frescoes in the parish church of the Ascension of Christ in Sümeg , Hungary, 1756/77.
  • Erecting the Cross, oil on canvas, 1757/58, Belvedere, Vienna.
  • Ceiling fresco in the ballroom, Halbturn Palace , Burgenland, 1765/66.
  • Ceiling fresco in the giant hall of the Hofburg , Innsbruck, 1772.
  • Altar fresco in the Augustinian Church , Korneuburg , 1773.
  • Glorification of Emperor Joseph II, oil on canvas, before 1777, Belvedere, Vienna.
  • Ceiling fresco in the library of the Strahov Monastery , Prague, 1794.

literature

swell

Web links

Commons : Franz Anton Maulbertsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In various sources the 7th and 9th August are also given.
  2. ^ The five frescoes by Franz Anton Maulbertsch
personal data
SURNAME Maulbertsch, Franz Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian baroque painter and fresco artist
DATE OF BIRTH baptized June 7, 1724
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenargen
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1796
Place of death Vienna