Johann Baptist Stiglmaier

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Johann Baptist Stiglmaier

Johann Baptist Stiglmaier (born October 18, 1791 in Fürstenfeldbruck , † March 2, 1844 in Munich ) was an important ore caster of the 19th century. At the same time he was a sculptor , draftsman and medalist. As director of the royal ore foundry in Munich , he revived the art of monumental ore casting, which has been almost forgotten since ancient times . By accepting interns from all over Europe, he became the leading multiplier of this rediscovered technology.

life and work

family

Johann Baptist Stiglmaier came from a long-established family in Fürstenfeldbruck . He was the youngest son of the farrier Augustin Stiglmaier and his wife Maria Magdalena, who belonged to the middle class of the small market. In 1825, Stiglmaier married Anna Streber, the niece of Auxiliary Bishop Franz Ignaz von Streber , who, thanks to his numismatic experience, was also head of the Royal Coin Cabinet . The marriage resulted in son Heinrich (* 1827) and daughter Ottilie (* 1836). His nephew and closest colleague, Ferdinand von Miller , continued the ore foundry after Stiglmaier's death and completed the work he had already started, including on the Bavaria .

Apprenticeship and studies

He received his first drawing lessons from the manager of the nearby Fürstenfeld monastery , who had noticed the boy's talent. This was followed by training with the gold and silversmith Johann Peter Streißl in Dienerstraße in Munich, who specialized in sacred art , until 1811 . During this time he attended the holiday school very successfully , from which he graduated with the first prize endowed with 100 guilders.

The director of the Royal Mint, Heinrich-Joseph Leprieur , became aware of Stiglmaier's talents during this time and made it possible for him to join the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in order to be able to use him later as a coin engraver and medalist. In addition, he received foreign language lessons.

First successes and grants

In 1814 he was employed as an intern at the Royal Mint . He also created sculptural works that he exhibited in public. As a result, the future King Ludwig I became aware of him during his time as Crown Prince and Leo von Klenze . Klenze commissioned four bronze reliefs with winged genii for the Hofgarten gate.

In 1818, Stiglmaier became the second engraver at the Royal Mint . This position was linked to a scholarship for a multi-year stay in Italy. In this way, Stiglmaier was to continue his education in the art of ore casting , especially since the then Crown Prince Ludwig pushed for the revival of this technique in Bavaria.

In 1819 Stiglmaier stayed in Rome and from 1820 in Naples to volunteer with Francesco Righetti and his son Luigi in their workshop near Vesuvius. The young German's keen interest aroused suspicion, so that Stiglmaier was finally denied access to the workshop. Autodidactically and in collaboration with the sculptor and ore caster Carlo Beccali and his three sons, the first casting attempts were carried out in a makeshift workshop. There a first attempt at casting was successful with the bust of Stiglmaier's sculptor friend Johann Nepomuk Haller . Shortly afterwards, a bust of Crown Prince Ludwig created by Bertel Thorvaldsen was cast .

After four years abroad, he returned to Munich in the fall of 1822 and worked again at the Royal Mint . On September 15, 1823, still unmarried, he took his nephew Ferdinand von Miller to live with him.

In 1824/25 another scholarship enabled him to study in Berlin, where he was able to study the casting of the Blücher monument by Christian Daniel Rauch . There he got to know new techniques from France. As during his stay in Italy, Stiglmaier recorded his experiences in diaries.

The royal ore foundry in Munich, 1845

Director of the Royal Ore Foundry

King Max Joseph I founded an ore foundry as a royal state enterprise for the production of smaller bronze and ore cast goods in 1822 after several years of searching for a suitable location. Finally, the decision was made to build the royal ore foundry on an uninhabited area previously used by the Bavarian military between the city limits and the village of Neuhausen according to plans by Leo von Klenze "on the road to Nymphenburg".

King Ludwig I expanded the royal ore foundry shortly after taking office in autumn 1825. In order to produce larger cast works, a new furnace was built that could hold 120 quintals of ore (= 6000 kg). Stiglmayer headed the company with the title “First Inspector”. The first successful casting was the bas-relief that was to adorn the gravestone for the two Indian children, Isabella and Johannes from Brazil, who had recently died. Queen Caroline had commissioned it.

From now on, until its end in 1931, the Munich foundry produced numerous smaller works in addition to the spectacular monumental sculptures , including countless portrait busts .

Central plants

In 1835, the successful completion of the monument to King Max I. Joseph Stiglmaier's ability to produce monumental ore castings was made clear.

In 1826, Stiglmaier delivered his first large-format cast that was immediately successful with the bowl to crown the 30-meter-high constitutional column in the park of Gaibach Castle .

In 1828 the large casting house for the monument to King Max Joseph I was built. During this time, Stiglmaier tried out another technically demanding project: the 29-meter-high memorial for the 30,000 Bavarians who fell during Napoleon's Russian campaign . The obelisk was made in 15 individual parts and was not completed until 1833 with the casting of the base zone. The ore foundry was finally established with the successful completion of the monument to King Max Joseph I in 1835.

Work on the obelisk on Karolinenplatz based on a design by Leo von Klenze took five years, from 1828 to 1833 . In 1836 preparations began for the casting of the monument to Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria , which was ceremoniously unveiled in 1839. At the same time, Stiglmaier worked on the twelve Wittelsbach ancestral statues for the throne room of the Munich residence based on models by Ludwig von Schwanthaler , which were completed for the wedding of the heir to the throne Maximilian II Joseph with Marie von Prussia on October 12, 1842.

In 1837 he signed the contract to create the Bavaria together with Ferdinand von Miller, Ludwig von Schwanthaler and Leo von Klenze .

In 1842 Stiglmaier fell ill with stomach cancer. He died on the evening of March 2, 1844, after he had heard of the successful casting of the Goethe monument donated to the city of Frankfurt.

Honors

  • The Stiglmaierplatz in Munich is named after him.
  • He was granted honorary citizenship by the city of Salzburg for the execution of the Mozart monument and honorary citizenship of the city of Bayreuth for the creation of the Jean Paul monument .

tomb

Johann Baptist Stiglmaier was buried in the Winthirfriedhof in Munich's Neuhausen district.

The grave of Johann Baptist Stiglmaier, Neuhausen cemetery, Munich.

Work overview

Ore castings and plastic representations (selection)

Many of these works were also cast in reduced form in the ore foundry. The twelve fire-gilded rulers of the House of Wittelsbach received Queen Victoria of Great Britain, Tsar Nicholas I and King Otto of Greece , among others .

Medals and Coins (selection)

  • Head of Proserpine, after an ancient coin, 1814.
  • Johann Maximilian v. Count of Preysing-Hohenaschau, 1815.
  • Revers of the Munich wedding medal, 1816.
  • Commemorative coin for the marriage of Princess Elisabeth Ludovika with Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, 1823
  • History convention thaler ( Ludwig I conjures up the constitution), 1825
  • History convention thaler (The royal family at the birth of Prince Adalbert ), 1828
  • History convention thaler (monument to Maximilian I Joseph ), 1835

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Baptist Stiglmaier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Video at ARD-Alpha, 16 min. (Online until March 30, 2022) Stories of great spirits: The royal ore foundry in Munich Johann Baptist Stiglmaier (1791–1844 / ore caster), Ferdinand Miller (1842–1929 / ore caster and sculptor) and Ludwig von Schwanthaler (1802–1848 / court sculptor) discuss on a stage in the old southern cemetery.
personal data
SURNAME Stiglmaier, Johann Baptist
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ore caster
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Fürstenfeldbruck
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 1844
Place of death Munich