Franz Xaver Nißl

Franz Xaver Nißl on a portrait medallion at his grave in Fügen

Franz Xaver Nißl (also Nissl; born July 26, 1731 in Fügen in the Zillertal ; † December 4, 1804 ibid) was an important Tyrolean sculptor .

Life

Son of the "Bäckenwirt", Nißl learned his trade with the sculptor Gregor Fritz from Hall, probably between 1745 and 1750 and then most likely in Munich with the Bavarian court sculptor Johann Baptist Straub . Around 1756 he opened his own workshop in Fügen.

Although Nißl employed twelve journeyman sculptors in Fügen and the workshop was continued by his nephew Franz Serafikus Nißl (1771–1855), apart from this and possibly Anton Huber (born March 3, 1768 in Fügen, † March 4, 1840 in Fügen), there are no students to call. A notable student of Franz Seraficus was Johann Baptist Pendl (* June 22, 1791; † March 14, 1859) from Galler in Aschau in the Zillertal , who went to Meran in 1816. Franz Xaver Nißl died unmarried.

plant

Nißl soon broke away from the courtly rococo and found an independent naturalistic style that combines Munich elegance with Tyrolean down-to-earthness and culminates in the penitential figures of the Fiechter collegiate church (1773–1774). Previously, he had designed the reliefs on the cheeks of the church stalls, a choir stalls and a pulpit (both have been lost, as has most of the works he made for side altars in Fiecht). One of his earliest major commissions was probably the Fiechter Notburga altar in 1759 , of which only two statues, namely the Saints Wendelin and Isidore , and two groups of putti have survived . One of them is in the Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck.

Significant sculptures were created, for example, for the parish churches of Eben am Achensee , Gerlos , Alpbach and Fügen, reliefs with depictions of the fourteen helpers and the stoning of Stephen, and around 1765 an altar for the parish church of Stumm in the Zillertal, only preserved in individual figures .

At an advanced age he also built nativity scenes : around 1780 for the dean's church in Fügen, 1794 for the chapel of the Brixen Hofburg (changing nativity scene with a Christmas and Lent cycle, with a good 500 figures), now in the Brixen diocese museum . Other Nißl cribs are privately owned.

Works

• 1799 Side console figures Antonius Hermit and Hieronymus on the high altar of the parish church in Hallein

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  80 Stuhlwangen (1772–1773), St. Georgenberg-Fiecht Abbey

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  Motif death of St. Benedict (1772–1773) after an engraving by the Klauber brothers (Augsburg 1768 [?]), St. Georgenberg-Fiecht Abbey

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  Group of putti peasant activities , Notburga altar (1759), St. Georgenberg-Fiecht Abbey

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  Crucifix (1774), Parish Church of the Assumption in Fügen

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Nißl, Franz Xaver . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 20th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1869, p. 372 ( digitized version ).
• Albert Ilg:  Nissl, Franz the Elder . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, p. 704 f.
• Josef Ringler: Old Tyrolean Christmas cribs . Wagner University Press, 1969.
• G. Hölzl: Franz Xaver Nissl (1731–1804) . Philosophical dissertation, University of Innsbruck 1977.
• Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): Dehio-Handbuch - Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs - Tirol . Scholl, Vienna 1980, p. 229 f., P. 262 ff.
• Elisabeth Fidler-Daxer: Iconography of the Fiechter chair cheeks . Absam 1995, ISBN 3-900627-01-0 . (Also: Diploma thesis, University of Innsbruck 1993.)
• Hans Wirtenberger: About old Zillertal cribs and their artists . In: Der Krippenfreund . 83 (1996) 4, pp. 169-172.
• Ekkart Sauser:  Franz Xaver Nißl. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 15, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-077-8 , Sp. 1111-1112.

Web links

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

• Nißl crib on the website of the Diocesan Museum Hofburg Brixen.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fidler-Draxler states December 1st.