Johann Leonhard Falter

Johann Leonhard Falter (* around 1735 in Schmallenberg ; † March 1807 in Büren ) was a Westphalian baroque and rococo sculptor and carver .

life and work

He was the son of Zacharias Falter, who had moved to Schmallenberg, and Angela Dicke, who was born there. The father was licensed to sell beer and brandy in town. It is not known where Falter received his artistic training. He came into contact with Johann Theodor Axer . Some of his early works could almost be copies of Axer's work. After his training he lived in Schmallenberg until 1762. In the same year he married a Catherine Lockener in Büren. There he is proven to be resident from 1767. Until 1775 he still paid citizenship money in order to maintain his citizenship in Schmallenberg.

In Büren he worked like his teacher Axer at the Jesuit Church . The gilded statues on the high altar come from him. He created the high altar for the Holthausen monastery . He also worked for the Himmelpforten monastery . Parts of it are now in the Niederense church . Other altars by him are or were in Meiste , Weiberg , Bigge , Borgentreich , Werl , Dorlar , Eversberg , Brunskappel , Delbrück , among others . In addition, numerous smaller works in the form of altars, pulpits or figures came from Falter's workshop.

The demarcation between his works and those of his cousin Adam Destadt, who was an apprentice to him, is sometimes problematic.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On Falter's work in Niederense

literature

• Franz Klanitz: sculptor of the 17th and 18th centuries in the Sauerland. In: Patrone and Saints in the Sauerland region of Cologne. Schmallenberg 1993, pp. 188-190.