Johann Fortschegger

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Johann Fortschegger (born July 18, 1743 in Anras , † September 8, 1827 in Liezen ) was an Austrian wood sculptor and painter , whose area of ​​activity was the north-west of Styria .

Life

Johann Fortschegger began an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker in the workshop of his father Bartholomäus Fortschegger. In the following years of apprenticeship and traveling he came to the Admont Benedictine monastery , where he became a student of the important baroque sculptor Josef Stammel .

In 1765 he married Agnes Vetscher from Mitterndorf , settled in Mitterndorf and stayed there for 42 years. The couple had twelve children, all of whom died at an early age. For his artistic work he received numerous commissions for churches in the extended area around Mitterndorf.

After the death of his wife he lived and worked in Rottenmann from 1807 to 1813 . In 1813 he bought a house as a retirement home in Liezen . Here he married the 42-year-old Maria Renner from Liezen in 1816 at the age of 72. The marriage came to a tragic end when the woman was murdered by a peddler eight years later . Fortschegger suffered a stroke and remained paralyzed and speechless until his death.

Fortschegger's interior of the parish church Bad Mitterndorf
Johann Fortschegger's pulpit in the Pürgg parish church

plant

Fortschegger's work is purely religious in nature. He created altars and figures of saints, crucifixes and pulpits, but also individual altarpieces and tabernacles . In the parish church in Bad Mitterndorf , most of the interior fittings, including the high altar, were made by him, as well as the altar, pulpit and tabernacle of the Maria Kumitz pilgrimage church built in the 1770s .

His sphere of activity soon extended beyond the Hinterberger Tal into the Ennstal , into the Paltental and into the upper Murtal . There are pulpits by him in Bad Aussee and Pürgg , and more of his works can be found in Liezen, Rottenmann, Wald am Schoberpass , St. Peter ob Judenburg , Oppenberg , Lassing , Irdning , Donnersbach and Öblarn , among others .

Ernst Novotny distinguishes three periods in Fortschegger's work. In the phase from 1765 to 1780, the passionate, spirited, agitated baroque depiction predominates , which ends in the years 1780 to 1790 with Rococo influences . From 1790 the classicist- influenced period followed with a calm, serene and simple expression.

literature

  • Ernst Novotny: Johann Fortschegger, sculptor in Mitterndorf . In: Series of publications by the Heimatmuseum Bad Aussee, Vol. 5, Bad Aussee 1983
  • Walter Balatka: In the footsteps of the sculptor Johann Fortschegger , in “Liezen im Zeitwandel”, episode 6, June 2002 ( digitized version )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Portrait: Sculptor and painter Johann Fortschegger on Aussee regional television ( Memento from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ http://utkuggv.liezen.at/images/picdb/35/beilagejuni02.pdf
  5. ^ Ernst Novotny: Johann Fortschegger, sculptor in Mitterndorf
personal data
SURNAME Fortschegger, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian wood sculptor and painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1743
PLACE OF BIRTH Anras
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1827
Place of death Liezen