Franz Stecher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Engraved fresco on the outer wall of the Servitenkirche in Innsbruck, destroyed by bombs in the Second World War

Franz Stecher (born August 16, 1814 in Nauders , † August 19, 1853 in Innsbruck ) was a late Romantic Austrian painter. He is considered to be one of the last Nazarenes in Austria.

The Seven Deadly Sins , around 1852
Maximilian Joseph von Österreich-Este portrayed by Franz Stecher

Life

Franz Anton Stecher was the son of a carpenter and a nephew of the sculptor Josef Kleinhans . He studied in Innsbruck with Gebhard Flatz , who went to Rome in 1833 . Stecher then moved to Vienna in 1834 and studied with Leopold Kupelwieser and Joseph von Führich at the academy until 1837 . In 1836 he received the Füger Prize for his chalk drawing The Finding of Moses . In 1837 he received the Reichel Prize for his oil painting Moses strikes water from rocks . In addition to biblical themes, he also designed portraits, especially in his early days. From March 10, 1838, Stecher was a member of the Jesuit order . In the first year of his novitiate he could not deal intensively with painting. From the time thereafter come about two chest pieces that show Jesus and Mary with the shining heart in front of their bodies. These oil paintings, painted in 1839, each 78 by 60 cm, were later found in the parish church of St. Helena in Ottendorf an der Rittschein in Styria . They were once in the episcopal house chapel in Graz.

From October 2, 1839 to 1843, he lived in the Jesuit College Aloisianum on the Freinberg near Linz . On March 10, 1840, he finished his novitiate and took his vows. The Maximilian Church on the Freinberg was consecrated a little later, on May 8, 1840. At the same time Franz de Hieronymo was canonized. The Festival of the Sacred Heart of Jesus took place on June 28 of the same year. It can be assumed that Stecher painted a picture of Jesus with the burning heart on this occasion, which, together with a picture of the Heart of Mary and a portrait of Joseph, belonged to the top of a side altar in the Maximilian Church. The image of Joseph is attributed to Martin Kestler . The three paintings are no longer preserved in the assumed original arrangement; the Sacred Heart image was transferred to the college building. This picture shows a closer orientation to the style of the Nazarenes, without it being known whether Stecher had any contact with Joseph Sutter , who at the time was living in Linz .

From the end of 1841, Stecher showed symptoms of the onset of schizophrenia . Attempts were made to cure him through stays in the Cistercian monastery in Hohenfurth in Bohemia and in the Jesuit college in Innsbruck, but on January 6, 1844, he left the Society of Jesus. This step in his life had little effect on his artistic work, however, because he continued to create paintings with a religious content, among others for the parish church of Nauders , the Capuchins in Mals and the Sisters of Mercy in Innsbruck.

In 1846 or 1848 he went to America. In Conewago , Pennsylvania, he painted the false domes of the Church of the Sacred Heart with frescoes. Among them, the largest depiction is an image of the Holy Trinity, which has iconographic features and a clear further development of Stecher's compared to his image of the Trinity in Linz. The Holy Spirit now stands between them as the product of the relationship between the other two Persons of the Trinity. The monumental figures are arranged vertically and surrounded by six large figures of angels who offer smoke offerings. In Philadelphia he created frescoes and altarpieces for the Jesuit church; also in Buffalo for the Canisius Church.

In 1851 Franz Stecher returned to Europe and was accepted as a beneficiary in the Servite monastery in Innsbruck. He designed the Holy Sepulcher for the Servites in 1852/53 .

In 1853 an exhibition of his works was planned, for which he worked on a representation of the Last Judgment . It remained unfinished because Stecher died that year at the age of 39. In 1957 the Stechergasse in Linz was named after Franz Stecher.

1982 in the exhibition Classicists - Nazarenes. Kunst im Oberland 1800 to 1850 several works by Stecher are shown in the Tyrolean State Museum : a self-portrait in watercolor, an oil portrait of his uncle Kleinhans, the pictures of the side altars of the church in Nauders and six drawings.

Works (selection)

  • Saint Felix of Cantara and Saint Anton of Padua , side altar paintings in the Capuchin Church in Mals
  • Immaculata in the parish church in Sterzing (1837)
  • Descent from the cross in the parish church in Gries i. Seilrain (1839)
  • Madonna with angels making music and Archangel Michael in the parish church of Nauders (1839)
  • Immaculata and Saint Aloysius in the house chapel of the prince-bishop's seminary in Graz (1839)
  • Herz Mariä and Herz Jesu in the Münzgrabenkirche in Graz (1839, destroyed by bombing)
  • Madonna in the church in the Magdalena-Vorstadt in Marburg (1839)
  • Saint Stanislaus Kostka in the Aloysius Chapel of the Old Cathedral in Linz
  • Herz Jesu , Herz Mariä , Saint Joseph , Maria and Johannes Evangelista , Maria with Saint Aloysius and Alfons Rodriguez , death of Saint Franz Xavier in the Freinberg Church
  • Saint Ignatius , Holy Trinity , angel making music , birth of Christ , adoration of the kings, etc. in the Jesuit college on Freinberg
  • Saint Martin and Saint Gregory in Martinskirche (around 1840)
  • Death of Stanislaus Kostka in the Stanislaus Kostka Chapel in Vienna (around 1840)
  • Dispatch of the disciples , confirmation of the Jesuit order by Pope Paul III. in the choir of the Jesuit church in Innsbruck (before 1844), also several panel paintings in the sacristy of the church and in the college building
  • Lamentation of Christ on the outer wall of the Servite Church in Innsbruck (fresco from 1851, later replaced by a mosaic replica)
  • Holy grave for the Servite Church in Innsbruck (1853)
  • Tobias, hurrying towards his son (1838)
  • Stigmatization of St. Francis (panel, 1845)
  • The restless conscience (panel, 1845)
  • The virgin triumph and the lost innocence repentance on Corpus Christi day (panel, 1845)
  • Reward for hard work (panel, 1845)
  • The abandoned widow's consolation (panel, 1845)
  • Christ on the Mount of Olives (drawing in the Ferdinandeum Innsbruck, 1853)
  • It is done (drawing in the Ferdinandeum Innsbruck, 1853)
  • Battle of Spinges (drawing in the Ferdinandeum Innsbruck, 1853)
  • Adoration of the Shepherds (drawing in the Ferdinandeum Innsbruck, 1853)
  • Smuggler (drawing in the Ferdinandeum Innsbruck, 1853)
  • Last Judgment (drawing in the Ferdinandeum Innsbruck, 1853)
  • Maximilian Joseph von Österreich-Este as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (oil painting in the Museum Leonding)

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the Kollegium Aloisianum
  2. ↑ a b Georg Wacha : The Herz-Jesu-Kapelle of the Linz Freinberg Church and the holy arts In: Yearbook of the Upper Austrian Museum Association. Volume 135, Linz 1990, pp. 231-262; on Stecher pp. 240–243 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  3. ↑ So Thieme-Becker .
  4. ↑ Article Stecher, Franz (Ser.) Anton , in: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950 , Vol. 13, Lfg. 60, 2008, p. 136
  5. ↑ Information Stecher alley on linz.at .
  6. ↑ Martha Vennersten-Reinhardt, The late Nazarene Franz Anton Stecher - a Tyrolean artist's fate
personal data
SURNAME Engraver, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Engraver, Franz Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Nauders
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1853
Place of death innsbruck