George Heermann

Statue of Venus from the judgment of Paris on the facade of the Palais in the Great Garden - Dresden (1679–1683)

Garden stairs of Troja Castle near Prague (from 1683)

Sculptures on the staircase of Troja Castle near Prague

High altar of St. Peter and Paul in Görlitz

George Heermann (* around 1640 in Weigmannsdorf near Lichtenberg , † after 1700 in Dresden ) was a German sculptor , carver , architect and Saxon court sculptor.

Life

It is known about his youth that he received his training as a sculptor from Johann Böhme or his son in Schneeberg in the Ore Mountains and perhaps from the Walther family in Dresden.

He then went on a journey to Italy for ten years . There he expanded his artistic skills with the Italian master sculptors Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini .

In 1679 he returned to Saxony and worked for the electoral court in the royal seat of Dresden. Initially, he worked under the director of the Electoral Saxon building industry, Wolf Caspar von Klengel, at the Palais in the Great Garden , where, in collaboration with the newly founded workshop of Jeremias Süßner , he mainly created parts of the rich architectural decorations on the exterior facades. His sculptural and artistic abilities ensured recognition at the Saxon court and in 1689 he was appointed court sculptor.

Heermann also appeared as an architect at the Dresden Council in 1683 and presented plans for a new Frauenkirche as a counterpart to the Kreuzkirche and plans for the redesign and development of the Neumarkt .

In 1683 he left Dresden for a while and made some of the sandstone figures for the famous staircase at Troja Castle near Prague .

He created four sandstone figures of the evangelists for the moated castle in Linz near Schönfeld in the Meißner Land. Linz Castle was blown up and removed in the spring of 1948 as part of the land reform ( SMAD order no. 209 ).

For the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Görlitz , which burned down in the war in 1691 , he made a new organ front and the new altar . The last major work is the double epitaph for Hans Adam von Schöning and his wife, née von Pöllnitz, in Tamsel near Küstrin.

Epitaph for Hans Adam von Schöning and his wife in Tamsel

George Heermann initiated the high baroque period in Saxony through his extensive knowledge of contemporary sculpture in Italy. He died in Dresden soon after 1700.

Works (selection)

1679–1683: Ensemble The Judgment of Paris in the side facades of the first floor of the Palais in the Great Garden in Dresden, as well as Venus with Cupids on the south facade, two portal masks over the ground floor portals of the main facades.

1683–1695: Sandstone figures Zeus , Athene , Nike , Kronos , Dionysus , Herakles , Hephast , Ares , Poseidon , Hades , Apollon , Hermes , Prometheus , Artemis and Demeter for the staircase at Troja Castle near Prague
1692–1695: Figures of faith, love and hope for the altar of the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Görlitz
1695–1700: four sandstone figures of the evangelists Matthäus , Markus , Lukas and Johannes for the moated castle Linz in Saxony.
Epitaph for Hans Adam von Schöning and his wife, née von Pöllnitz, in Tamsel near Küstrin .

literature

Fritz Löffler : The old Dresden. ISBN 978-3-86502-000-0 , ISBN 3-86502-000-3 .
Sigfried Asche : Three families of sculptors on the Elbe. Publisher RM Rohrer, 1961.
Sigfried Asche: Heermann, George. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 197 ( digitized version ).
Roswita Jacobsen: Weissenfels as a place of literary and artistic culture in the baroque age. Rodopi Publishing House, 1994, ISBN 9051835000 .

Web links

Commons : George Heermann - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Sigfried Asche: Three families of sculptors on the Elbe.
↑ Jiří Sehnal: Život a dílo vrcholně barokních sochařů Heermannů a Süssnerů from 17th to 18th stol. v německém a českém prostředí (Life and work of the baroque sculptors Heermann and Süssner in the 17th and 18th centuries in Germany and Bohemia), diploma thesis, Charles University in Prague, 2009, with several individual documents, (Czech) (accessed June 18, 2017)

personal data
SURNAME	Heermann, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1640
PLACE OF BIRTH	Weigmannsdorf near Lichtenberg / Erzgeb.
DATE OF DEATH	after 1700
Place of death	Dresden

[1] Sigfried Asche: Three families of sculptors on the Elbe.

[2] Jiří Sehnal: Život a dílo vrcholně barokních sochařů Heermannů a Süssnerů from 17th to 18th stol. v německém a českém prostředí (Life and work of the baroque sculptors Heermann and Süssner in the 17th and 18th centuries in Germany and Bohemia), diploma thesis, Charles University in Prague, 2009, with several individual documents, (Czech) (accessed June 18, 2017)