Johann Baptist Dorsch

Elbe side of Pillnitz Castle - sphinx figures flank the staircase

Johann Baptist Dorsch (* 1744 in Bamberg ; † November 29, 1789 in Dresden ) was a sculptor who worked in Dresden.

Life

Dorsch was a student of the court sculptor Ferdinand Titz in Bamberg. Then in 1766 he went on a six-year wandering and a two-year stay with Master Nahl in Kassel , where he received his academic training. He lived in Dresden around 1775. Due to his services at the Saxon court, he was appointed court sculptor in 1786. From the beginning of 1789 the later court sculptor Franz Pettrich also worked in his workshop . His most important work is undoubtedly the tomb for the Chevalier de Saxe Johann Georg von Sachsen († 1774) in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden. In addition to his commissions for the Saxon court, he made marble medallions for important classical writers and Roman emperors. The Zwinger in Dresden was also badly damaged by the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763. The urgent restoration work was carried out from 1778 onwards by, among others, the sculptors working in Dresden, with Dorsch as the head sculptor taking on part of the responsibility until his early death in 1789. His friend and sculptor Thaddäus Ignatius Wiskotschill continued this work until it was completed in 1795. In doing so, both sculptors tried to reflect the Permos epoch in the representation of the figures in a more lively and playful way than in the strict classical form. Other contributors were Franz Pettrich, Anton Demmler, Johann Christian Feige the Younger and seven other sculptors. Bad health and bitter about the lack of appreciation for his work, he died in Dresden at the age of only 45.

Artistic career

The Widukind statue on the stable building next to the Georgenbau and the ceiling design in the Japanese Palace . From 1774 he and Thaddäus Ignatius Wiskotschill created the sculptural jewelry at the Palais Brühl-Marcolini , including two sandstone lions. Also together with Wiskotschill, he supplemented the sculptural jewelry in the Dresden Zwinger from 1785 to 1787 . The sculptures were placed on Hauptstrasse in 1979 after the Zwinger was rebuilt. Dorsch created the tomb of Chevalier de Saxe Johann Georg von Sachsen, who died in 1774, in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden.

Works (selection

• 1774: together with Thaddäus Ignatius Wiskotschill the plastic jewelry at the Palais Brühl-Marcolini, u. a. two sandstone lions, two female herms and a large electoral coat of arms.
• after 1774: Tomb of the Chevalier de Saxe Johann Georg von Sachsen in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden.
• 1778: Zwinger restoration together with Wiskotschill, several figures in the western part and in the south-eastern pavilion in Dresden.
• 1783 to 1785: Ceiling design in the Japanese Palace,
• 1785 to 1787: together with Th. I. Wiskotschill the sculptural jewelry in the Dresden Zwinger, these were put up in 1979 after the reconstruction of the Zwinger on the main street,
• 1785 to 1787: Groups of figures in the Johann Georg Palaisgarten in Dresden.
• 1787: Widukind statue on the stable building next to the Georgenbau at Dresden Castle.

literature

• Stadtlexikon Dresden A-Z . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1994, ISBN 3-364-00300-9 .
• Art in public space . Dresden Cultural Office, Dresden 1996.
• Fritz Löffler: The old Dresden: history of its buildings. EA Seemann, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-86502-000-3 , p. 465.
• Daniel Jacob: Sculpture Guide Dresden: From Aphrodite to Twin Fountains. Freital 2010, ISBN 978-3-942098-05-2 , pp. 62, 98 and 126.
• Johann Christian Hasche: Magazine of Saxon History. Part IV 246.