Gregor Schwenzengast

Gregor Schwenzengast (born March 3, 1646 in Martell ; † July 4, 1723 in Latsch ) was a Baroque sculptor from the Vinschgau , who had a workshop in Latsch.

Life

Gregor Schwenzengast was the son of the couple Paul Schwenzengast and Christina Kolerin, who lived in the "Schwenzhaus" in the Gand in Martell. The house was demolished in 1864.

On August 18, 1658, the Latsch lawyer Blasius Polin, in the presence of sureties and witnesses from Martell and Latsch, drafted an apprenticeship contract in which Gregor Schwenzengast and his nephew Barthlmee Koler were entrusted to the sculptor Oswald Krad from Latsch. While Barthlmee had to work for six years, Gregor was to remain in the apprenticeship for seven years because his parents were unable to deposit the usual study allowance. What is striking is the passage in this contract that allowed the two apprentices to carry out carving work in their free time on their own account, an unusual privilege at the time. On November 26, 1664, the master Oswald Krad dismissed Gregor Schwenzengast from his apprenticeship, but kept him as a journeyman until mid-August 1665.

Gregor Schwenzengast did not seem to have started the usual years of wandering at the time to achieve the championship title, because on May 27, 1666, a work contract between the Marienberg monastery and the sculptor Gregorien Schwenzengast was on record, followed by another on August 10, 1667 in who is already talking about a learner , i.e. an apprentice in his service. In accordance with the guild rules that were strictly observed at the time, Gregor must have already held the championship title. The Marienberg monastery was the young Schwenzengast's first major client, and Abbot Franz von Pach supported the talented artist as best he could throughout his life. He brought him into contact with his family, for whom the artist created several coats of arms and gravestones.

In 1671 the Rait registers of the monastery included the note aniezt zu Latsch , meaning that Gregor had moved to Latsch. In 1666 he had bought a garden in the Gand in Martell. His teacher, Oswald Krad, had in the meantime given him his wide range of activities because he had moved to Bozen .

When the artist married his wife, Maria Partin from Kuppelwies in Ulten , is not known. Wife and child have been there since 1667 when he had to stay in Marienberg for a long time. The esteem he enjoyed in the upper social circles of Latsch is testimony to the names of the godparents for his children and the guarantors for contracts related to Schwenzengast - above all the Count von Mohr auf Montani .

Numerous foundations of the Schwenzengast couple for religious issues or for brotherhoods are documented. Foundations and soul tools were very common in the baroque period.

None of the numerous children seem to have outlived their parents because they are no longer mentioned in the estate process. His son Johannes became a sculptor, his son Jakob Philipp a doctor in Neumarkt . Gregor Schwenzengast died very old on July 4th, 1723. The absence of the closest relatives - his wife had been dead for two years, the children also no longer alive - may have contributed to the fact that the artist was among his contemporaries in his last life. and his creative period was forgotten. In the end he will probably no longer have any major workshops, but only have made tombs, images of the Virgin Mary and heraldic stones. One of his sponsors in Latsch was Pastor Peter Heid, who headed the Latsch parish from 1674 to 1718. For his successor, the innovator Paulus Lanpacher, the artist was obviously no longer an issue.

Works

Gregor Schwenzengast was probably already out of fashion in his main line of work, the building of altars, during his lifetime and was already forgotten by his contemporaries. Subsequent chroniclers only had very little information about his work available, on the other hand, some particularly well-known art historians viewed the works from this artistic era with undisguised disdain. This applies to Karl Atz , for whom the works of art worth mentioning ended in Gothic (for him only Schwenzengast's participation in the construction of the Tschenglser parish church was worth mentioning), as well as to Josef Weingartner . It was not until the interwar period and more recently that local authors such as Nicolò Rasmo began to illuminate the entire creative reservoir of this Latsch artist through meticulous source collections and thus to put his status in the right light.

Marienberg creative period

• St. Michaels Altar 1671; with some figures it is not certain whether they come from him.
• The Marienberg organ case with the year 1678 (moved to Burgeis during the Bavarian occupation , 1812) with the Marienberg monastery and prelate coat of arms
• A crucifixion group in St. Cross chapel next to Burgeis
• A small Marian altar with the year 1697, which was later installed in the court chapel at Prämajur
• The image of the Virgin Mary Snow from the chapel on the footpath to Marienberg (1691)
• Various statues in the monastery building or in the sacristy of Burgeis; Decorative pieces for the rooms in the monastery (other work pieces, which are probably not all available)

Altars

In addition to the above-mentioned St. Michael's altar and the little Marian altar in Prämajur, the following altars are attributed to the artist (Schwenzengast did not usually sign his works):

• Marling , St. Felix 1671, altar
• Latsch, parish church of St. Peter and Paul 1681, Puz altar
• St. Moritz in Ulten, 1685 high altar (the side statues were stolen in 1976)
• Tarsch , parish church of St. Michael, around 1694, high altar
• Tarsch, parish church St. Michael, Zacher-Altar (Zacharias-Altar)
• Tarsch, parish church St. Michael, St. Anna Altar (St. Anna and Sebastian Brotherhood)
• Tschengls , parish church of the Birth of Mary 1697, altar in the side chapel, foundation of the Hendl family and main work by Gregor Schwenzengast. The builder was Josef Delai, the altarpiece of the Assumption was painted by Matthias Pussjäger . Renowned art experts ascribed the rich stucco work to him. This is denied by others because Schwenzengast was not a plasterer.
• Kortsch , parish church of St. Johannes 1699, altar of the side chapel, Hans Strimmer Foundation, clerk in Schlanders
• Sistrans , parish church St. Gertraud 1705, of the altar created for this church only the statue of the church patron exists

Wooden statues

• Tarsch, Parish Church of St. Michael, Man of Sorrows. Inscription 1666 Leonhard Gruber (he was one of the wealthiest farmers in Tarsch)
• Tarsch, Parish Church of St. Michael, Pietà (attribution uncertain)
• Kortsch, parish church of St. John the Baptist, guardian angel statue (later revised)
• Kortsch, parish church of St. John the Baptist, Anna Selbdritt (revised)
• Latsch, St. Anna Chapel at the Mühlrain residence, St. Anna and Joachim under the golden gate
• Latsch, Ansitz Mühlrain, St. Anna statue (attribution uncertain)
• Martell, cemetery chapel, Pietà
• Goldrain , St. Anna in Schanzen, gable figure on the left side altar, Archangel Michael
• Latsch, parish church of St. Peter and Paul, Pietà
• St. Pankraz in Ulten, Lower Chapel in St. Sebastian am Friedhof, Pietà
• Latsch, Parish Church of St. Peter and Paul, Mother Anna (statue will have belonged to an altar; it was used as a processional statue for a long time)
• Latsch, parish church of St. Peter and Paul, St. Joseph
• Parish Church Tschengls, St. Catherine
• Meran , St. Barbarakapelle 1712, Annunciation group (figures come from a candlestick altar that the artist created for the parish church of Meran )
• Latsch, Our Lady at the Bichl, St. Sebastian and St. Rochus
• Innsbruck , Ferdinandeum , Archangel Michael (Provenance from Schlandersburg )
• Vezzan, private property, St. Erasmus (supposedly from the Moosburg in Goldrain)

Madonna reliefs

St. Anna Chapel at the Mühlrain residence in Latsch

Madonna relief at the Hotel zum Count von Meran

The deep piety of the people in the Baroque era brought the veneration of Mary in various forms to a heyday: the pilgrimage experienced an upswing. Particularly popular destinations for pilgrims in Vinschgau were Marienberg, Our Lady in Schnals , and the Three Holy Fountains in Trafoi . Every place sought to have a chapel of grace, as did the residents of Tschengls, who eagerly spread the word about their miraculous image. The painters had their hands full painting pictures of Mary on the walls of houses. The sculptors and stonemasons carved their Marian motifs in wood or chiseled them in marble or stone.

For the production of his medallion-like Madonna reliefs from Vinschger marble, Gregor Schwenzengast was very likely to be inspired by an image of the "Wessobrunn miraculous image" that is in the inventory of the St. Anna Chapel in Schanzen. Since 1704, the Wessobrunn monastery brought the news of this miraculous image to the people in a broad and skilful propaganda, in Vinschgau also about the Marienberg monastery. The Madonna reliefs by Gregor Schwenzengast can be classified between 1704 and 1723:

• Mals, Frühmesswidum, mother of beautiful love
• Kortsch, Luzienhof, differs from the others in essential pieces, therefore the attribution is controversial
• Schlanders, Rathaus or Plawennhaus, mother of beautiful love, comes very close to the Wessobrunn image of grace
• Schlanders, Matscherhaus, the face of Our Lady is suspect of a portrait
• Schlanders, Gasthaus zum Widder
• Latsch, Ansitz Mühlrain, Maria, Temple of the Holy Spirit, especially beautifully designed
• Marling, Obergojenhof, commissioned by the Charterhouse in Schnals
• Meran, Hotel zum Graf von Meran am Rennweg
• Meran, Widum in Passeirergasse No. 3 (comes from the Thalguterhaus in the Berglauben)
• Untermais , Siegler am Turm, Dorfmeisterhof or Suppanturm

There are other similar reliefs at the Liebeneich mansion in Terlan and Bozen, but these are not attributed to Schwenzengast because they were sometimes very roughly and carelessly executed.

Funerary monuments

They are tombstones whose clients had a documented close relationship with the artist or who were in the era of his work and show high quality craftsmanship; but there are no definite attributions. It is this

• the “Verdrosische Begrebnus” in the arcades of the Latsch cemetery
• the grave monument for pastor Petrus Heid at the foot of the tower of the parish church of Latsch, 1718
• the Kleinhans tomb in the Latsch parish church
• the Mohr memorial stone in the Latsch hospital church, 1695
• the tombstones for Peter Spechtenhauser and Johannes Veilegger in the Bichlkirche in Latsch
• the tomb for pastor Johannes Wenter in the parish church of Naturno, 1719
• the Voglmayr epitaph at the parish church of Merano, 1695
• the tomb for Susanna Peisserin at the old parish church in Lagundo, 1700
• the tombstone for Cordula von Pach at the parish church of Merano, 1719
• the gravestone for Josef Storch in the cemetery of Marling, 1722
• the grave memorial for Ferdinand Miller von Aichholz in the Niederlana cemetery , 1709
• the tomb for Johann Jakob von Pach at the parish church in Kaltern , 1666

Heraldic stones and marble reliefs

Coat of arms over the courtyard gate of the Stachlburg in Partschins

Alliance coat of arms of Ferdinand Karl v. Sagburg et al. Maria Helena Campi von Heiligenberg at the Rosengarten residence in Lana / South Tyrol

• Alliance coat of arms at the Heydorf residence in Schlanders, today Loretzhof
• Reliefs of Emperor Leopold I (1657–1705) and Emperor Joseph I (1705–1711) in the Schlandersburg (permanent loan from Ferdinandeum , Innsbruck)
• Coat of arms of Abbot Franz von Pach in the Marienberg monastery
• Coat of arms on the courtyard gate of the Stachlburg in Partschins
• Alliance coat of arms of the Stachlburg in Partschins and the Schlandersberg in the Kallmünz on the sand court in Merano
• A memorial stone in the Church of St. Helena in Ulten, 1698
• Coat of arms on the Gasthaus zum Schwarzen Adler in Lana, which was owned by the Miller von Aichholz family
• Alliance coat of arms of Ferdinand Karl von Sagburg and his wife Maria Helena Campi von Heiligenberg and a group of figures at the Rosengarten residence in Lana

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hermann Theiner: Gregor Schwenzengast , p. 24
2. ^ Hermann Theiner: Gregor Schwenzengast , p. 22
3. ^ Hermann Theiner: Gregor Schwenzengast , p. 27
4. ↑ Josef Weingartner: Die Kunstdenkmäler Südtirols , vol. I, p. 56: From there (2nd half of the 17th century) on, the production of altars and thus wooden figures becomes more and more numerous. The baroque forms take over, the figures twist and squirm, the heads show pathetic excitement, the robes flutter and the arms gesticulate in the air ... There is no shortage of such baroque and rococo altars in South Tyrol either. Significant works of art are rarely included.

literature

• Hermann Theiner: Gregor Schwenzengast: Baroque sculptor in Latsch 1646–1723 . Heimatpflegeverein, Latsch 1996, Kofel GmbH Schlanders printing

Web links

Commons : Gregor Schwenzengast  - Collection of images, videos and audio files