Johann Mauritz Gröninger

Johann Mauritz Gröninger (* 1652 in Paderborn ; † September 21, 1707 in Münster ) was a German sculptor and painter.

Grave altar for Elector Johann Hugo von Orsbeck in Trier Cathedral by Johann Mauritz Gröninger

Family and education

Johann Mauritz Gröninger came from the artist family of the same name. His father Dietrich (1620–1667) and grandfather Gerhard Gröninger were sculptors. His sister Gertrud Gröninger also worked as a sculptor, especially for church clients.

He married Anna Elisabeth Wilte in 1674 and Christina Elisabeth Baeck in 1695. A total of eleven children resulted from the marriages. Among them was Johann Wilhelm Gröninger (1675–1733), who took over his father's workshop. Other brothers also worked as sculptors or architects.

Gröninger attended the Jesuit grammar school in Paderborn. After his father's death he became a sculptor. Perhaps he was in the Flemish area for training, perhaps in Antwerp . Because there is a stylistic closeness to Flemish as well as French masters. One of his teachers is the Antwerp artist Ludovicus Willemsen, who worked in Paderborn after 1655 .

plant

As early as 1674 he became the prince-bishop's court sculptor in Münster and later also an electoral Cologne court sculptor. But he not only worked in many cities in Westphalia, but also in Trier and Mainz. In his works, Gröninger adopted both individual motifs and entire compositions by important Baroque artists who were known to him through graphic models: Peter Paul Rubens , Pietro da Cortona and French sculptors. He became known through large wall monuments, the architectural invention of which is wrongly attributed to him.

In Münster he created the grave monument for Christoph Bernhard von Galen . The grave monument for Friedrich von Fürstenberg in Wedinghausen Monastery , the grave monument for Ferdinand von Fürstenberg in Paderborn and a monument in Mainz Cathedral for Heinrich Ferdinand von der Leyen zu Nickenich were probably designed by Ambrosius von Oelde . Gröninger was the performing artist here.

Further works can be found in Ahaus Castle and Adolfsburg , among others . His main works include numerous sacred sculptural works, including six monumental choir screens for the St. Paulus Cathedral in Münster (1699/1706), which are shown today in the cathedral chamber .

His oeuvre is determined by the Dutch late baroque. In terms of technology and craftsmanship, Gröninger's works are considered to be of outstanding quality. His figures are both representative and deeply expressive. Technically, Gröninger was a master of his subject, who succeeded, for example, in reproducing clothes and fabrics. His style developed from a rather heavy baroque to finer work with a simultaneous generous monumentality.

literature

• Theodor Rensing : To the genealogy of the Gröninger . In: Alois Schröer (Ed.): Monasterium. Festschrift for the 700th anniversary of the consecration of Paulus Cathedral in Münster . Regensberg Verlag, Münster 1966, pp. 137–148.
• Udo Grote: Johann Mauritz Gröninger. A contribution to the Baroque sculpture in Westphalia . Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 1992, ISBN 3-774-92461-9 .
• Ferdinand Koch: The Gröninger. A contribution to the history of Westphalian sculpture in the late Renaissance and Baroque periods. Münster 1905 ( digitized version )
• Margarete Pieper-Lippe:  Gröninger, Johann Mauritz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 117 ( digitized version ).
• Wilhelm Honselmann: On the older history of the Gröninger family of sculptors in Paderborn and Münster ( http://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/txt/wz-9519.pdf )

Web links

Commons : Johann Mauritz Gröninger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Johann Mauritz Gröninger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Search for Johann Mauritz Gröninger in the German Digital Library