Giovanni Antonio Viscardi

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Giovanni Antonio Viscardi

Giovanni Antonio Viscardi (born December 27, 1645 in San Vittore near Roveredo , † September 9, 1713 in Munich ) was an Italian- Grisons Baroque builder who mainly worked in Bavaria . He was temporarily court architect there, introduced the late baroque in Munich and had a formative effect on the following generation of architects.

Life

Fürstenfeld Monastery ⊙
The Bürgersaal in Munich, 1709/10

On December 27, 1645 Viscardi was baptized in San Vittore near Roveredo in the Italian-speaking part of Graubünden, near the Ticino border. Many of his ancestors, such as his grandfather Giovanni Antonio or his great-grandfather Bartolomeo, have been working as master masons, municipal craftsmen or builders north of the Alps, from Bavaria to Styria , and even to Mainz, since the middle of the 16th century . He spent his apprenticeship with his father Bartolomeo, who was in the service of Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria.

When he was not quite 30 years old, he helped as Parlier of the electoral Bavarian court architect Enrico Zuccalli in transforming the Altöttinger Sanctuary of St. Magdalena . A year later he married in San Vittore and took his young wife with him to Munich, where in 1678 he succeeded Kaspar Zuccalli as the Bavarian master mason of Elector Ferdinand Maria . Despite initially having a good relationship with his superior Enrico Zuccalli, he was dismissed in 1689 after a dispute with the master builder. Zuccalli's son-in-law Trubillio took his place.

In the second phase of his career, Viscardi appears largely as a freelance architect and develops a lively and successful activity in Munich and the surrounding area. For the Cistercian abbey in Fürstenfeld he designed the monastery building ( Kloster Fürstenfeld ). Viscardi also worked for numerous other religious orders, noble and civil clients at this time.

He built the new monastery for the Munich Salesian Sisters, for the Benedictines of Metten Monastery he rebuilt the Loh pilgrimage church , built the monastery in Landshut for the Jesuits, renewed the hall and church of the Munich Jesuit College St. Michael and expanded the Benedictine monastery complex to Benediktbeuern . The brother of the elector, Duke Maximilian Philipp , had the small castle at Türkheim built by him . Franz Graf von Haunsperg builds Hofberg Castle near Landshut with him . Countess Maria Adelheid Theresia von Rivera-Preysing commissions a town house in Munich. Joner's Secret Council is the builder of the Neuhofen Castle in Munich- Sendling . These country houses and summer residences set the style for the secular architecture of the Bavarian late baroque. At that time, the Viscardi company employed numerous well-known site managers, parlors and almost 150 journeymen.

As a church builder, Antonio Giovanni Viscardi reached the height of his work with the new century. The parish church of St. Stephan Steindorf near Mering and the Premonstratensian Church in Neustift near Freising are built under his direction . The Jesuit church in Augsburg is being rebuilt, and the foundation stone is laid for the new abbey church of Kloster Fürstenfeld and the construction of the choir begins. Then, however, the construction is stopped immediately due to lack of money. The elector owed repayments to the monastery.

The main work of this phase, however, is the pilgrimage church of Mariahilf zu Freystadt in the Upper Palatinate . As a central building and church of the type of a domed Greek cross, which also shows the typical Viscardi conception of wall and column design in the interior, this church shows his personal style Style most clearly.

With the new Nymphenburg and Schleissheim palace buildings running at the same time , which were pushed ahead rapidly by Elector Maximilian II Emanuel , the court building authorities were also overburdened by the court master builder Zuccalli. Viscardi was therefore entrusted with the further construction of Nymphenburg Palace in 1702 . After Zuccalli was dismissed during the exile of the Bavarian elector, Viscardi was appointed chief master builder at the Bavarian court in 1706 by the imperial administration in Bavaria , and in 1713 even appointed imperial master builder and land master.

In 1709/10 Viscardi made the plans for the Bürgersaal in Munich, and in 1712 he completed the Palais Rivera in Erding .

The Trinity Church in Munich

The artistic highlight at the end of his life was the construction of the Trinity Church in Munich in today's Pacellistraße, the facade of which is rated by Viscardi's biographer Karl-Ludwig Lippert as a “cabinet piece of personal design” and is considered to be “one of the most interesting and appealing pieces of Munich Baroque”. Viscardi introduced the late baroque to Munich with her facade. The church was completed in 1718, five years after Viscardi's death.

Giovanni Antonio Viscardi died in Munich on September 9, 1713. His foreman Johann Georg Ettenhofer completed some of Viscardi's works that were still under construction. With the death of Giovanni Antonio Viscardi, the long supremacy of the master builders from the Misox comes to an end in Kurbayern . Local workers and, after Elector Max II Emanuel's return from exile, French trained architects are now in charge. Viscardi nevertheless had a long lasting effect, his influence can still be felt in Johann Michael Fischer and Johann Baptist Gunetzrhainer , his pilgrimage church in Freystadt is an unmistakable model for the Frauenkirche in Dresden.

Trivia

The Viscardigasse behind the Feldherrnhalle in Munich commemorates the famous baroque master builder . During the "Third Reich" it was called Drückebergergasse by the locals because it was used by citizens who wanted to "avoid" before paying the Hitler salute when passing a National Socialist memorial.

In the city of Fürstenfeldbruck , a newly built grammar school was put into operation in 1973/74, which was officially named Viscardi grammar school by the Bavarian Ministry of Education on July 26, 1974 at the suggestion of the teaching staff .

Buildings (selection)

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Antonio Viscardi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sueddeutscher-Barock, Dreifaltigkeitskirche. Retrieved March 2, 2018 .
  2. ^ Sueddeutscher-Barock, Giovanni Antonio Viscardi. Retrieved January 2, 2018 .
  3. ↑ viscardi-ffb.de: Our naming
personal data
SURNAME Viscardi, Giovanni Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss builder from the Baroque era who mainly worked in Bavaria
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1645
PLACE OF BIRTH San Vittore GR
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1713
Place of death Munich