Johann Joseph Resler

Ferdinand II in the Michaelerkolleg

Portal of the Dominican Church

Kapistrankanzel

former Jesuit church

Johann Joseph Resler , also Johann Joseph Rößler and Johann Joseph Roehsler (born February 12, 1702 in the parish of St. Ulrich , † April 9, 1772 in Josefstadt ) was an Austrian imperial court sculptor of the Baroque .

Life

Johann Joseph was born the son of the court theater painter Johann Heinrich Resler (1665–1727), who immigrated from Bozen, and his wife Magdalena, formerly Lecknerin. They lived near Ortisei, in the house called "The Golden Snake". He had a sister and five brothers, one of them, Johann Georg matured into a successful painter. He received basic training from his father. In 1727 both parents died.

In 1733, when he was already married, he lived on “Alstergasse” in the “Zum Weisse Löwen” house, the death of his one and a half year old son is documented, referred to as a sculptor for the first time. On April 6, 1735, an uncle, the painter Karl Resler von Reslfeld, died in Garsten Abbey , who left a considerable fortune.

Dominican Church in Znojmo

The Reformation of the 16th century found wide acceptance in Znojmo . The reaction to this was that, in the Counter-Reformation, the branches of the Jesuits and Capuchins were added to the older Roman Catholic religious houses, and they immediately started building activity. This also had an effect on the older monasteries, who redesigned and redesigned their buildings with high-ranking artists.

The Dominican Church of the Holy Cross was rebuilt in 1653–1677 and after 1730 received a new two-tower facade. The Eggenburg sculptor Johann Caspar Högl designed the main portal. In 1734 Resler worked there in the company of several Vienna-based artists, including the imperial court sculptor Lorenzo Mattielli . He created altar figures, his first known commission.

Lorenzo Mattielli left the Viennese court in 1738 and entered the service of King August III. to Dresden . It was certainly also the disappointment that the young sculptor Georg Raphael Donner emerged as the winner in the tender for the new fountain on the Mehlmarkt (today Neuer Markt) . Resler only now appeared with larger, independent works, initially in Mattielli's formal language. The years before, he had worked as a colleague of Mattielli's and therefore took over the sculpting work for the attic above the domed hall of Klosterneuburg Abbey .

Capistrankanzel at the cathedral church of St. Stephan in Vienna

Resler designed the figural group above a small Gothic pulpit at St. Stephen's Cathedral with the preacher and monk Johannes von Kapistran in 1738. The design drawing came from Franz von Roettiers, Resler's first documented independent work. This prominent work resulted in a high level of awareness and several orders.

The plasterers' complaint

The guild of plasterers complained that Johann Joseph Resler was not only active as a sculptor, but also as a plasterer. An indictment was brought before the Lower Austrian government on October 20, 1739. This was granted, and other sculptors were then banned from performing stucco work.

Between 1739 and 1745 he moved from “Alstergasse” to “Radlmayerhaus” (today Josefstädter Straße 12), where he lived until his death and ran a larger workshop. His tax payments in these years indicate the large number of his orders.

Jesuit Church in Raab

Resler traveled to Raab with the Viennese master stonemason Jacob Jäger on May 13, 1743 to draw up a contract. Parts of the high altar were made in the stonemason's workshop and the sculptor designed the statues. It was transported by water across the Danube. Two years earlier, Master Jacob Jäger had acquitted the apprentice Johann Gehmacher as a journeyman, who was appointed master in the imperial quarry on Leithaberg .

Pilgrimage church on the Hafnerberg

Pilgrimage church Hafnerberg, chancel

Resler created the high altar in the pilgrimage church from 1743–1745, based on a design by Balthasar Moll , the pulpit, as well as oratorios and supraportas .

Klosterneuburg Abbey

In the SE wing of the monastery with the Archduke's hat and with the Roman imperial crown on the attic balustrade , stone statues by Rößler 1746/1747 arranged in four groups , allegory of imperial rule and virtues of Maria Theresa and Franz Stephans von Lorraine .

Pilgrimage church Heiligenkreuz-Gutenbrunn

The Viennese auxiliary bishop Franz Anton von Marxer , canon of St. Stephan trained by the Jesuits , acquired the rule of Gutenbrunn in 1754 and had the foundation stone laid for a pilgrimage church on August 5, 1755 barely a year later. The pulpit with Christ as the Good Shepherd on the sound cover and opposite the statue of St. Florian under a curved canopy , both by Resler.

Michaelerkolleg in Vienna

Michaelerkolleg, portal

For the newly built staircase, Resler designed a statue of Emperor Ferdinand II in the armor of a Roman general in accordance with a contract with the Barnabites from 1756 . This emperor is no longer the religious fanatic, but a serene, wise, aging ruler. He also created the groups of figures above the portals of the longitudinal front in Habsburgergasse . Stone carvings by the masters Georg Andreas Högl and Johann Gehmacher.

Pilgrimage church Maria Jeutendorf

According to plans by the Viennese master builder Johann Enzenhofer, construction work began in Maria Jeutendorf in 1717, the portals were built in 1727, and the facade was completed in 1740. Two altars by Resler were made in the entrance area in 1757, one dedicated to St. John of Nepomuk , the other to St. Sebastian .

Herzogenburg Abbey

In 1743 the foundation stone for the new collegiate church was laid, headed by Franz Munggenast . The shell was around 1750, the interior design dragged on for three decades until the church was consecrated in 1785 . Here Johann Joseph Resler found a great task, which from 1769 on filled the last years of his life. Statues for the high altar completed in 1770, design and execution of two side altars, probably his last work - a statue of Jerome that impressively reveals the maturity and virtuosity of the aged sculptor.

death

Johann Joseph Resler died on April 9, 1772, shortly after completing the last figures for the Herzogenburg monastery church. His will shows that he was wealthy, he left considerable sums to his four daughters, and he made his wife Anna Sabina the true and legitimate universal heiress .

The widow continued the workshop for a while. She supplied the completed figures for the Augustine altar of the Herzogenburg collegiate church. With one of her journeymen named Mayr. She died the following year on March 27, 1773 at the age of 69.

literature

• Leonore Pühringer-Zwanowetz: On the building history of the Augustinian canons of Herzogenburg. In: Herzogenburg Abbey and its art treasures. 1982, ISBN 3-85326-620-7 .
• Ilse Schütz: Life and Work of Johann Joseph Resler (1702–1772) - a contribution to the history of Baroque sculpture in Austria. In: Yearbook for regional studies of Lower Austria. New episode 54–55, 1990, pp. 303–332 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
• Felix Bornemann: Arts and Crafts in South Moravia. Znaim Dominican Church, JJ Rössler. 1990, ISBN 3-927498-13-0 .
• Dehio Wien, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-85028-366-6 , 1st district-Innere Stadt: Michaelerkirche and Kloster. P. 124 f, St. Stephen's Cathedral p. 199.
• Helmuth Furch : Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch. Michaelerkolleg . 2 volumes. Museum and Culture Association, Kaisersteinbruch 2002–2004, ISBN 978-3-9504555-8-8 .
• Herbert Haupt: The handicrafts exempt from court and court in baroque Vienna 1620–1770, with Johann Joseph Resler . Research on Vienna's urban history, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7065-4342-2 .

Web links

Commons : Johann Joseph Resler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by Johann Joseph Resler in: Digitales Belvedere