Georg Franz Ebenhech

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Georg Franz Ebenhech , also Ebenhecht (* around 1710 in Lodersleben or in Carinthia or in Carniola ; † February 21, 1757 in Berlin or Leipzig ) was a German sculptor , plasterer and ivory carver in the Rococo period .

Live and act

Little is known about Ebenhech's career beginnings. At a young age he is said to have been in the wake of the Saxon Elector Friedrich Christian in Italy and then in Dresden. Ebenhech then moved to Leipzig, where he had a sculptor's workshop in the early 1740s, in which the city coat of arms for the north gable of the previous building of today's Gewandhaus was created in 1742 . Two oval ivory reliefs with the muse Euterpe playing aulos and the torch-carrying Venus with the boy Cupid also date from this period and are kept in the Grassi Museum. Ebenhech only made a name for himself later, when he accepted an appointment at the Prussian court and worked in Berlin and Potsdam. There he created sculptures in his own workshop and worked temporarily under the direction of the French François Gaspard Adam in the French sculptor's studio , in which sculptural marble jewelry for the buildings and gardens of Frederick II was made. The atelier, which was set up in a former garden house in Berlin's Lustgarten, was founded by the king specifically for the production of marble sculptures, since work with this stone was hardly widespread among local artists. In 1751 he, like François Gaspard Adam, was made an honorary member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts and Mechanical Sciences .

In Potsdam, Ebenhech was involved in decorating the city ​​palace and the Sanssouci park and palace . He created four groups of lamp holders and four sphinxes with putti for the “Green Staircase” on the central risalit of the city palace, which was converted into a ramp . Two colossal figures " Hercules with lyre " and " Apollo " placed on the central risalit in 1746 were replaced by figures by Johann Peter Benkert as early as 1750 , as they did not correspond to Frederick II's taste. Ebenhech's sculptures were then taken to the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin . The statues " Flora " and " Pomona ", which he created around 1750 based on a model by Friedrich Christian Glume for the Potsdam pleasure garden , are no longer in their original place. They came to Park Sanssouci in 1960 and adorn the garden area south of the New Chambers . His other sculptures on the city palace include two fencing figures that originally stood in the “Wrestler Colonnade”, which was completed in 1746 and led from the middle of the western side wing to the stables . He contributed to the decoration of the "Havel Colonnade", which ran from the southeast corner of the main building along the eponymous Havel , with children's figures and sandstone vases .

When Frederick II had a baroque ornamental garden laid out below Sanssouci Palace, Ebenhech was the only German sculptor to work on the marble sculptural decoration. The furnishing of the garden parterre on both sides of the north-south axis running towards the castle was otherwise reserved for French sculptors. Two marble sphinxes with putti from the 1750s flank this axis in the south and, according to the old interpretation [by Cesare Ripa ], guard the realm of the spiritual as allegories of sagacity or secret knowledge. Around 1750, the so-called "Corradini Vase" was also built to the southwest of the New Chambers. The free imitation got its name after the original created by Antonio Corradini , which is known in the Dresden Great Garden under the name "Lushness Vase". The figurative representation shows "The sensuality enters the innocence" and the relief " Alexander and the women of Darius ". For the Neptune grotto in the eastern part of the park, he created two naiads with putti in 1752 and probably the model for the water god Neptune with a trident and shell, which Benkert completed after Ebenhech's death in 1760. Not all of his works have been preserved in the park. Among other things, the marble colonnade , also called Rehgarten Colonnade, built according to plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff and completed in 1762 , in the western section of the main avenue leading from west to east, was lost. The colonnade had to be demolished in 1797 because it was in disrepair. Ebenhech decorated this water feature in collaboration with Johann Peter Benkert , Johann Gottlieb Heymüller and other artists with sculptures made of gilded lead and marble.

Ebenhech also worked inside the Sanssouci Palace. According to the instructions of Friedrich II. Or Knobelsdorff and under the direction of the "Directeur des ornements" Johann August Nahl the Elder. Ä. he contributed in close cooperation with other well-known artists to the room decoration in the style of the Frederician Rococo. In the vestibule he created three over- port reliefs in gilded stucco with representations from the Bacchus myth showing the “triumphal procession of Bacchus ”, “ Bacchantes procession with drunken Silenus ” and “ Bacchantes dancing around a Priapos herme ”. For the adjoining Marble Hall he designed four female figures and groups of putti, which symbolize architecture, music, painting and sculpture as well as astronomy and geography. In collaboration with the plasterer Johann Michael Merck (1714–1784), he designed the ceiling of the concert room and library, richly ornamented with gilded stucco, where he made the figurative jewelry.

In Berlin, Ebenhech created a marble tomb for the banker and entrepreneur Gottfried Adolph Daum around 1743 behind the altar of the Petrikirche in Berlin-Cölln. In addition to a half-length portrait of Daum, who died in 1743, the tomb showed two figural allegories of time and love. The tomb described by Friedrich Nicolai in the second volume of his "Description of the Royal Residence Cities Berlin and Potsdam" published in 1779 was destroyed in a fire in the church in 1809. Ebenhech was also involved in the sculptural decoration of the opera house and St. Hedwig's Cathedral at the former Forum Fridericianum . At the portico of the church building, he executed, according to the Berlin construction officer Millenet, five very well-made bas-reliefs with the resurrection of Jesus Christ , whereupon the “ Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und schehrte Dinge ” published an article on June 11th Received in 1754. This is reliable evidence that the reliefs were already finished in the first construction phase and not - as many suspected - were not made by Achtermann until 1837 according to Ebenhecht's designs. He also created twelve larger-than-life apostles that stood in the window niches and are considered his main work.

  • Two of four groups of lamp holders on the “Green Staircase” at the Potsdam City Palace

  • Fencer in the former wrestling colonnade at the Potsdam City Palace

  • Neptune and Naiads with putti on Neptune's grotto in Sanssouci Park, 1779

  • West side Sphinx in Sanssouci Park

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Thieme-Becker, Volume 10, p. 293.
  2. ↑ a b P. N. Sprengel's Crafts and Arts in Tables. With copper. 9. Collection, Berlin 1772, p. 213.
  3. ↑ Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv Potsdam, signature: Rep. 4 A Testaments 4103 and 4104, Dat.-Findbuch 1756.
  4. ↑ SPSG Sanssouci Palace. Berlin 1996, p. 139, cf. SPSG: Buildings and sculptures in Sanssouci Park. Potsdam 2002, p. 314.
  5. ^ Gerdt Streidt, Peter Feierabend: Prussia. Art and architecture . Könemann, Cologne 1999, p. 229.
  6. ↑ SPSG: The gods are returning . Jaron, Berlin 2011, p. 11.
  7. ^ Hans-Joachim Giersberg: The Potsdam City Palace. Potsdam 1998, p. 61.
  8. ^ SPSG: Sanssouci Palace. P. 133.
  9. ^ SPSG: Buildings and sculptures in Park Sanssouci. P. 21.
  10. ↑ Peter Heinrich Millenet: Critical comments the state of architecture in Berlin and Potsdam on. Berlin 1776, p. 38 ( digitally , accessed on March 21, 2012).
  11. ↑ Martin Engel: The Forum Fridericianum and the monumental residence places of the 18th century. Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 138 ( digital , accessed on March 21, 2012).
personal data
SURNAME Ebenhech, Georg Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ebenhecht, Georg Franz; Ebenhoch, Georg Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor, plasterer, ivory carver
DATE OF BIRTH around 1710
PLACE OF BIRTH Lodersleben or Carinthia or Krain
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1757
Place of death Berlin or Leipzig