Hans Christian Genelli

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Hans Christian Genelli (far left) in a picture by Johann Erdmann Hummel

Hans Christian Genelli (born April 5 or 23, 1763 in Copenhagen ; † December 30, 1823 in Alt Madlitz near Fürstenwalde ) was a German architect and, through self-study, became a recognized scholar, especially in the field of antiquity . He maintained a wide range of contacts with personalities from Berlin's cultural and intellectual life around 1800.

Origin and education

Genelli came from an originally Roman family of artists who emigrated to Copenhagen around 1730. His father Joseph worked as a silk embroiderer, draftsman and painter, his brothers Janus (* 1761) and Friedrich (* 1765) became landscape painters and copper engravers . In 1767 the family moved to Vienna , where the father was in the service of Empress Maria Theresa and was a member of the academy; In 1774 he was appointed to Prussia by King Friedrich II ( Frederick the Great ) , he lived as a valued artist and honorary member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin and died there in 1792.

Even in childhood and early youth, Hans Christian Genelli and his brothers received artistic inspiration in their father's Berlin studio, but no regular school education. Genelli later complained that he had to laboriously acquire his knowledge of history, philosophy , archeology , art and cultural history and foreign languages ​​as an autodidact . As a professionally respected connoisseur of antiquity and author of scientific works, he described in a letter in 1818, “... how I am equipped: Without any school lessons, that is, without any systematic order in the little knowledge that I like a gypsy or a peddler the highway had to furtively pick up, regardless of what connection they want to gain in my head. "

Artistic activity

Cenotaph for Julie von Voss

Together with his brothers, Genelli traveled to Rome in 1785 , where he studied the art of antiquity and the works of Raphael during a five-year stay . Together with Gottfried Schadow , he sent a draft for the planned monument to Frederick the Great in 1786. In 1791 he got a job at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. According to his drawings, centerpieces such as “The Seasons”, “ Zephyr and Psyche ” or “Olympos” were made and some of them were exhibited in the Academy of Arts, of which Genelli had been a member since 1795. He was close friends with the classicist painter Asmus Carstens (1754–1798), and he conveyed his own ideas of the clarity and simplicity of antiquity that he had acquired in Rome. When Carstens took part in the competition for the monument to Frederick the Great in 1791, Genelli designed the base for him. He also developed the image program for Carstens for a room in the house of the minister and temporary curator of the Prussian Academy of the Arts Friedrich Anton von Heynitz (1725–1802). A sandstone cenotaph was created for Countess Julie von Voss (1766–1789) based on Genelli's design ; it is shown today in the Schinkel Museum in the Friedrichswerder Church in Berlin. Around 1800 he designed the strictly classicist Ziebingen Castle for Wilhelm von Burgsdorff , who like Genelli himself attended Rahel Levin's salon , which fell into disrepair after war damage in 1945 and burned down in 1973.

Scientific work

Title page The Theater in Athens

Overall, Genelli was less creative than theoretically interested and active. He described himself as " passive genius " in a letter to Rahel Levin. He significantly promoted the artistic development of his nephew Bonaventura Genelli , the son of his brother Janus. From around 1800 Genelli concentrated entirely on his scientific work, the focus was on archeology. Among other things, he published a reconstruction of the mausoleum of Halicarnassus - one of the seven ancient wonders of the world -, a commentary on the writings of the Roman architectural theorist Vitruvius and an investigation into the various aspects of classical theater in Athens . The archaeologist Aloys Hirt (1759–1837) said he had an excess of imagination on occasion. As an art writer, Genelli published, among other things, the text "Idea for an Academy of Fine Arts".

In Berlin he was a frequent guest in Rahel Levin's literary salon, with whom he was friends for years. After 1800 he lived and worked as a scientist in Alt Madlitz, a property of Count Karl von Finckenstein . The high Prussian official was a close confidante of Rahel Levin. After his involuntary departure from civil service - in connection with the Müller-Arnold case , a spectacular legal dispute from the reign of Frederick the Great - Finckenstein devoted himself to his interests in art and science and acted as a patron for scientists and artists. Hans Christian Genelli died in Alt-Madlitz at the age of 60.

Fonts

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Ebert: About Hans Christian Genelli ... 1976
  2. ^ A b c Horn-Oncken, Alste:  Genelli, Hans Christian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 185 f. ( Digitized version ).
  3. ^ Announcement about the death of Johann Franz Joseph Genelli, in: Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und schehrte Dinge. No. 84, Saturday, July 14, 1792
  4. ↑ Hans Ebert: About Hans Christian Genelli and his relationship to Berlin's cultural and intellectual life around 1800. In: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Research and reports. Volume 17, 1976, pp. 175-188
personal data
SURNAME Genelli, Hans Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Genelly; Genelly, Christian; C. Genelly
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1763 or April 23, 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1823
Place of death Alt Madlitz near Fürstenwalde