Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt the Elder

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Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt (born October 8, 1709 in Zittau ; † after 1755 in Merseburg ; called the elder , to distinguish it from his younger brother Johann Christian ) was a German ornamental sculptor and decorator who played an essential role in the Frederician Rococo style .

Life and accomplishments

Joh. Michael Hoppenhaupt the younger sculptor and Zierratheur of Berlin together with his wife. Glume. advivum Fecit. Etching by Johann Gottlieb Glume around 1745

Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt, who came from a family of builders and sculptors, was the first-born son of the Princely Saxon court sculptor and master builder of the same name, Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt, and his wife Dorothea Catharina, née Hübner. After training as an ornamental sculptor, he initially worked in Dresden and Vienna. In 1740 he followed Frederick II's call to the Prussian court with his younger brother Johann Christian , who was looking for artisans to decorate his palace buildings. In the first few years the Hoppenhaupts worked under the direction of the superintendent of the royal palaces and gardens, Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, as well as the "Directeur des ornements" Johann August Nahl .

Since the brothers worked closely together in Prussian services, their ornamental motifs were similar and almost all of their works were unsigned - as was not uncommon in the 18th century - most of the designs can only be assigned to the respective Hoppenhaupt on the basis of building bills and drawings. Accordingly, Johann Michael carried out work in the writing room of the Berlin City Palace, which was destroyed in 1945, based on designs by Nahl . When Johann August Nahl left Prussia in 1746, he worked under the direction of his brother Johann Christian, who was subsequently appointed "Directeur des ornements". In 1747 joint activities in the "New Wing" of Charlottenburg Palace can be verified.

Due to the close relationships between Prussia and Anhalt-Zerbst , the decorative motifs of the Frederician Rococo also came to the Anhalt principality. On behalf of Prince Christian August , Hoppenhaupt d. Ä. between 1746 and 1749 the wall paneling and furniture for six rooms in the newly built east wing of the Zerbst Palace (destroyed in 1945), which were created in Hoppenhaupt's Berlin workshop based on designs by the royal Prussian building inspector and former Knobelsdorff employee Johann Friedrich Friedel and by local craftsmen on site were installed.

In the Potsdam Residence in 1746/47 he furnished the concert room in the Sanssouci Summer Palace with wood carving work on the walls, doors, paintings and mirror frames. 1748 followed in the City Palace , the wood carvings and seating in Konfidenztafelzimmer, 1749 the design of the doors of the Marble Hall, two cedar chests of drawers for the study and bedroom and designs for decorating the windows and fireplace wall running around 1754/55 in the Bronze Hall, the Johann Melchior Kambly with a rich, fire-gilded bronze decoration (wall decorations destroyed in 1945).

He carried out another commission in Breslau between 1750 and 1753. After Friedrich II had acquired the palace of the court chancellor Heinrich Gottfried von Spätgen in 1750 , Hoppenhaupt the Elder was in charge. Ä. the design of the royal apartment in the attached south wing (destroyed in 1945) and in Berlin 's Monbijou Palace . There is evidence of decorative work from 1753 to 1754, including in the porcelain cabinet and the porcelain gallery (destroyed in 1943). When the New Palais in Potsdam, built between 1763 and 1769, was furnished under the direction of the younger brother Johann Christian, he used Johann Michael’s designs from 1754 and left the “Lower Concert Room”, the “Hunting Chamber” and the adjacent “Upper Equip the concert room ”according to the existing models. Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt the Elder Ä. probably went back to Merseburg in the second half of the 1750s, where he died.

Carriage building

The sculptors and decorators commissioned by Frederick II to furnish the castles also made drafts for the royal carriages. In the 1740s, almost without exception, Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt d. Ä. responsible, the execution of which was entrusted exclusively to craftsmen from Berlin and Potsdam. Only a few of his models have survived , such as a Kaross Coupé from 1746 that Frederick II gave to the Russian Tsarina Elisabeth . The float is on display today in the Armory in the Moscow Kremlin . In Germany from 1755 to 1765 by Hoppenhaupt d. Ä. designed berline coupé survived the destruction of Berlin in World War II. The carriage made for the Saxon ambassador Leopold Nicolaus von Ende is kept in the Remise of Paretz Castle.

Publications

Towards the end of his activity in Prussia, Hoppenhaupt d. Ä. About 80 designs with wall and ceiling ornaments, chimneys, furniture, clocks, chandeliers, pulpits, tombs, carriages and sedan chairs. The designs were etched between 1751 and 1755 by one of the most important book illustrators of the 18th century, Johann Wilhelm Meil (1733–1805), and some of them were distributed in engravings by the Augsburg engraver and publisher Johann Georg Hertel (the younger). In addition, Meil ​​etched the von Hoppenhaupt d. Ä. designed title pages of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's writings, parts I to IV, 1753 and 1754.

  • Draft for the wall decoration of the "Great (Golden) Gallery" in the "New Wing" of Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, 1742/43

  • Draft for the wall decoration of the chimney wall of the bronze room in the Potsdam City Palace, around 1754

  • Kaross-Coupé, etching by Johann Wilhelm Meil, 1755 based on a design by Hoppenhaupt the Elder. Ä., 1745. Frederick II gave a similar carriage to the Russian Tsarina Elisabeth in 1746.

  • Phaeton with baldachin, etching by Johann Wilhelm Meil, 1755 based on a design by Hoppenhaupt the Elder. Ä., 1745

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Hoppenhaupt, Johann Michael the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoppenhaupt the Elder, Johann Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ornamental sculptor and decorator
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1709
PLACE OF BIRTH Zittau
DATE OF DEATH after 1755
Place of death Merseburg