Johann Heinrich Oden

Odens tomb for his first wife who was killed in a hunting accident: Kronos pulls the curtain aside and figures of faith (above) and motherly love (below) appear.

Johann Heinrich Oden (* 1732 in Holstein ; † January 5, 1797 in Braunschweig ) was a Braunschweig stonemason and court sculptor. Since the descendants of Oden were stonemasons, one can speak of an Oden workshop.

Life

Johann Heinrich Oden married Karoline von Wenbergen (1730–1766), the widow of the 28-year-old sculptor Joseph Anton Grössel , who died of consumption , with whom he must have worked in the summer palace in Salzdahlum in 1747/48, on May 3, 1757 . After the death of his first wife in 1766, he married Marie Elisabeth, b. Schulze († 1810), with whom he had nine children, including two sons. The older son Karl Oden (* October 30, 1771, † October 6, 1837), who continued the workshop after the death of his father, became court sculptor like his father in 1799. Karl's son received the name of his grandfather Johann Heinrich and also became a stonemason, who mainly created tombs in the Braunschweig area.
The younger son Heinrich Georg Engelhard Oden (* August 10, 1773; † April 4, 1825) ran a mirror factory and also called himself court sculptor.

plant

Tomb of Duke Leopold

The first known work by Johann Heinrich Odens is a free-standing tomb in the Magni cemetery for his wife, who died in 1766, which is a repetition of the wall memorial for Johann Christoph von Lohe, presumably by Johann Friedrich Ziesenius, in the church of Küblingen . This first work could also have been attached to the wall because it was only designed on the front. After 1755 there was a certain creative boom in stone carving in Braunschweig, because since then the cemeteries of Braunschweig were placed in front of the city gates and sculptural stone design became possible. It was no longer just epitaphs (wall tombs) that had to be made due to the cramped conditions of the church cemeteries.
Oden is accused of using other people's designs for his tomb designs, such as the design of a picture by Johann Dominik Fiorillo for the monument to Duke Leopold . This accusation also relates to the almost identical tomb designs by Ernst Sigismund von Lestwitz and Duke Leopold. The portrait medallions on both tombs were not made by odes, but by the Braunschweig sculptor Christian Friedrich Krull .
In addition, Jonas Paul Meier points out that Johann Heinrich Oden (senior) “ hardly went beyond the purely craftsmanship ”.

Workshop oden

• Tomb for Lieutenant Colonel Ernst Siegmund von Lestwitz († 1781)
• Tomb for Duke Leopold (1785 drowned while rescuing drowning people)
• Tomb in the cathedral cemetery of Ph. L. Kumme
• Tomb in the cathedral cemetery for AS von Breen
• Tomb for v. Hardenberg († 1802) in the Komtur von Lucklum
• Burial urn for Abbot Jerusalem († 1789) in the monastery church Riddagshausen (donated by the Duchess Philippine )
• Tomb for Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen and his wife von Adelepsen in the church of Pillowbrück
• Carving and plastic jewelry for the St. Trinitatis Church in Warlitz , Mecklenburg (1769–70)

literature

• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 8th to 18th centuries , p. 532, Braunschweig 2006
• Paul Jonas Meier : The sculptor's handicrafts in the city of Braunschweig since the Reformation. In: Workpieces from the museum, archive and library of the City of Braunschweig VIII., Appelhans, Braunschweig 1936.