Johann Melchior Kambly

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Johann Melchior Kambly , even Kambli or Camply (* January 9th or 16th January 1718 in Zurich , † 12. April 1782 or 1783 in Potsdam ) was a Swiss decorative rates sculptor, bronze caster and cabinetmaker .

Life

Johann Melchior Kambly came from an old, advisable family from Zurich and was the son of the art locksmith and watchmaker Heinrich Kambly (1674–1727) from his second marriage to Anna (1684–1754), the daughter of the chief master of the masons' guild Hans Jakob Schärer from Schaffhausen . He received craft training in Schaffhausen from his uncle, the plasterer and sculptor Johann Jakob Schärer (1676–1746), with subsequent training from the wood sculptor Johann Konrad Speissegger and the goldsmith Johann Konrad Schalch (1742–1819). After completing his apprenticeship, Kambly probably left Switzerland in 1744/45 to answer Frederick II's call to the Prussian court. The Prussian king recruited artists and artisans to beautify the palaces and residence cities of Berlin and Potsdam, for whom there was no need during the reign of the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I due to his pragmatic architecture and furnishings. Since most of them had looked for new activities outside of Brandenburg, Frederick II could only fall back on a few local workshops.

Kambly's activity in Potsdam is documented for the first time in a document from May 1745 in which he invoiced eight capitals for the Sanssouci summer palace . He established himself among the renowned artisans in Potsdam within a few years. Last but not least, he benefited from the diverse training that enabled him to work with different materials and techniques. He was involved in the artistic design of numerous buildings. After staying in Prussia for six years, he asked the king for permission to set up a bronze dorée [gold-plated bronze] factory there , which was not yet located in this country. He was approved on February 16, 1752. Although Kambly stayed in Prussia until his death and worked exclusively in the Potsdam area, he had his membership in his father's blacksmiths' guild renewed in Switzerland in 1750 and Zurich citizenship in 1772 for himself and his sons . After his death in 1783, his son Heinrich Friedrich, who was born in Potsdam in 1750, took over his father's workshop. In 1995, the Brandenburg state capital in the residential area of Kirchsteigfeld honored him with Kamblystraße.

Johann Melchior Kambly married Elisabeth Brisko (1723 – after 1785) from Groß Schönebeck in Berlin in 1744 , daughter of the estate and shepherd leaseholder on the Schorfheide, Peter Bisko. Of his thirteen children, two sons followed in their father's footsteps. In addition to his successor in Potsdam, Heinrich Friedrich, the older Melchior , born in 1745, also learned an artistic profession and worked as a sculptor in Zurich, where Kambly's brother Sixtus (1706–1768) also worked as a blacksmith .

Services

The entrance area of ​​the Chinese House designed by Kambly

After entering Prussian service, Johann Melchior Kambly initially worked on the architectural decorations of the Sanssouci Palace, which was built between 1745 and 1747, but almost at the same time also on the redesign of the king's apartment, the so-called Friedrichswohnung, in the Potsdam City Palace as well as on the outbuildings and garden pavilions in Sanssouci Park and the Neues Palais guest palace built between 1763 and 1770 on the western edge of the park. In the city of Potsdam he also contributed to the sculptural decoration of some buildings. His last documented work was done in 1781 at the riding and drill house - the so-called "Long Stable" - where he was involved in the sculptures on the head building.

Kambly's sculptural work was mainly used for ornamental building decorations such as capitals for pillars and pilasters , attic vases and window decorations. He also received orders to work on the design of castle rooms and the artful decoration of chests of drawers, desks, cupboards, grandfather clocks, music stands, picture and mirror frames. In the art of furniture he specialized in tortoiseshell veneer in the technique of André-Charles Boulle , only without inlaid metal marquetry , and decorated it with chiseled fittings and sculptural figures made of fire-gilded or silver-plated bronzes, which he had made in his workshop. Another specialty was his fine stone work, especially incrustations in the style of the Florentine pietra dura mosaics, which, similar to a wooden marquetry, are made from flat stone slabs.

Many of his works were created in collaboration with other artists who came to Prussia, such as the brothers Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt and Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt as well as the Bayreuth brothers Johann Friedrich Spindler and Heinrich Wilhelm Spindler , so that an exact assignment of the individual works is often only based on old ones Writing is possible. Alongside these artist colleagues, Kambly was one of the most important in the development of the "Frederician Rococo" and was in no way inferior to contemporary French furniture thanks to his craftsmanship. Quite a few of his works were destroyed as a result of the Second World War or are considered lost. According to evidence from Kambly there are still 15 pieces of furniture in the Sanssouci Palace, the New Palace, the New Chambers and the Chinese House . They are veneered with either tortoiseshell or cedar wood and lavishly decorated with gold-plated or silver-plated bronzes.

Works (selection)

  • Sanssouci Palace , Potsdam:
    • Various stone carving work on the outbuilding, 1745 to 1747
    • Marble hall: pilasters and column capitals, 1747
    • Audience or dining room: five-part set of vases made of jasper with gilded bronze decorations, around 1770–1773 (originally in the New Chambers, in the castle since 1782)
    • Various pieces of furniture. There are still some picture and mirror frames, a copy of a Parisian document cabinet made of cedar wood with gilded bronzes, 1749 and a music stand with tortoiseshell veneer, mother-of-pearl and ivory inlays and gilded bronze fittings, 1767
  • New palace
    • Various stone carving works, 1763–1769
    • Carved decorations in Frederick II's writing cabinet.
    • Gilded column and pilaster capitals, 1766
    • Various pieces of furniture. There are still two grandfather clocks from 1763; Desk, corner cupboard, three chests of drawers (see Drei-Graien-Kommode ), between 1763 and 1769; Frame with top for a Florentine mosaic cabinet, between 1768 and 1770; Desk, between 1765 and 1770
      • Tortoiseshell chest of drawers with gilded fittings
      • Longcase clock with musical mechanism made of tortoiseshell with gold-plated fittings
      • Back of a desk with a sloping top made of tortoiseshell with gilded fittings
  • New chambers
    • Part of the wood carving work, 1771–1775
    • Wall and floor work in the Jasper Hall, 1771–1775
  • Chinese house
    • 12 palm trees made of gilded sandstone, 1754/56
    • Grandfather clock
The still-preserved desk and corner cupboard in the writing cabinet of the Potsdam City Palace, 1928
  • Potsdam City Palace (destroyed)
    • Gilded column and pilaster capitals, 1749
    • Gilded lattice of the flag staircase, 1750
    • Decorations in the "bronze room" dining room
    • part of the furnishings for the “Schaffgotsche Zimmer”, later “Orange Chambers”, 1756
    • Various pieces of furniture in the music room and in Frederick the Great's study.
      • A tortoiseshell music stand with mother-of-pearl inlays and gold-plated fittings, 1767
      • A desk with an inclined plate made of tortoiseshell with gilded fittings, 1756
        (both pieces today in the New Palace) and a corner cupboard, 1756 (today New Chambers)
  • City of Potsdam
    • Two obelisks at Neustädter Tor in collaboration with Benjamin Giese based on a design by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff , 1753 (gate destroyed in April 1945, only one obelisk preserved)
    • Collaboration on the facade and arcades of the Church of St. Nikolai , which burned down in 1795 , 1753
    • Collaboration on the obelisk on the Alter Markt , 1753
    • Collaboration on the facade beautification of the Potsdam houses at Breite Strasse 3/4, 1751 and Schlossstrasse 7, 1754
    • Collaboration on the architectural decoration of the "Long Stable" , 1781

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Winfried Baer:  Kambli, Melchior. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 77 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ^ Leonard Meisters: Famous Züricher. 1782, p. 281.
  3. ^ Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin-Brandenburg : Sanssouci Palace. Potsdam 1996, p. 140.
  4. ^ Johann Melchior Kambly: "Von Schildkröt and bronce d'ormoly". gerhildkomander.de, accessed on June 23, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Paul Seidel: Friedrich the Great and the fine arts . Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1922, p. 212 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - Drawing of the chest of drawers).
  6. ↑ Paul Seidel: Friedrich the Great and the fine arts . Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1922, p. 211 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - drawing of the grandfather clock). and as a photo ( brandenburg.museum-digital.de ).
  7. ↑ Paul Seidel: Friedrich the Great and the fine arts . Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1922, p. 130 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - Drawing of the desk).
  8. ↑ Paul Seidel: Friedrich the Great and the fine arts . Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1922, p. 105 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - drawing of the music stand).
  9. ↑ Paul Seidel: Friedrich the Great and the fine arts . Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig 1922, p. 76 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - Drawing of the desk).
personal data
SURNAME Kambly, Johann Melchior
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kambli, Johann Melchior; Camply, Johann Melchior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss ornamental sculptor, bronze caster and cabinet maker
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1718 or January 16, 1718
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1782 or April 12, 1783
Place of death Potsdam