Johann Benedikt Hess the Younger

Johann Benedict Hess (called the Younger ) (* 26. March 1672 in Frankfurt am Main ; † 16th September 1736 ) was a German glass and gem cutter of the Baroque .

Life

He was a son of the glass cutter Johann Benedikt Hess the Elder (1636–1674). Johann Benedict Hess the Younger, the (May † 2 1731), his brother Sebastian zuarbeitete life, initially worked with glass , but then resorted, came when this art among the buyers out of fashion increasingly and from 1718 exclusively on the Glyptik that Cutting gemstones . He cut heads and figures, intaglio as well as cameos and completely free-standing figures, and his work was so good and sought-after that it was dearly paid for by enthusiasts and traders and not infrequently sold on to princely courts as “ antique ” works.

A bust of Alexander the Great made of sardonyx, made in 1712, decorated with gold and precious stones and resting on an eagle made of black agate, and an equestrian statuette of Julius Caesar with gold decorations from 1716, both around 22 cm high. He made a number of half-length portraits and heads in the profile of Roman emperors ( Antoninus Pius , Commodus , Galba , Hadrian , Nerva , Pertinax , Postumus , Severus Alexander , Tiberius and others) from onyx and sardonyx and heads also from jasper , mostly on behalf of traders and emerald .

Heinrich Sebastian Hüsgen compiled a catalog raisonné for the years 1699 to 1721.

His son Peter (1709–1782) also became a stone cutter, worked in his father's workshop until his father's death, took it over and went to the landgrave's court in Kassel in 1746 .

literature

• Georg Kaspar Nagler (ed.): New general artist lexicon . Sixth volume. Fleischmann, Munich, 1838, p. 158 ( digitized version )
• Philipp Friedrich Gwinner : Art and Artists in Frankfurt am Main from the 13th Century to the Opening of the Städel'schen Art Institute. Josef Baer, ​​Frankfurt am Main, 1862, pp. 204–205 ( digitized version )
• Tobias Biehler : About gemology. Jacob & Holzhausen, Vienna, 1860, pp. 93–94 ( digitized version )
• Heinrich Sebastian Hüsgen : News from Franckfurt artists and art things . Frankfurt am Main 1780, pp. 75-81 ( digitized version ).
• Robert Schmidt: The glass . Berlin, Leipzig 1912. pp. 243-244 ( digitized version ).
• Gustav Edmund Pazaurek: The Frankfurt Glass Cut and the Hess Family . In: Der Kunstwanderer 8, 1926, pp. 95–98, 145–148; 9, 1927, pp. 235-238, 275-279, 317-321.