Johann Michael Wolcker

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Johann Michael Wolcker (baptized May 12, 1702 in Schelklingen ; † October 16, 1784 ibid) was a German high baroque painter in Würzburg .

Ceiling painting by Johann Michael Wolcker from 1753 in the parish church of St. Bartholomew in Volkach

Life

Johann Michael Wolcker was the second son of Johann Georg Wolcker the Elder . He was born in his parents' house in Schelklingen at Bemmelbergergasse 12 and was baptized Catholic on May 12, 1702 in Schelklingen.

He first learned the painting trade from his father. His further education is unknown.

Wolcker settled in Würzburg in 1738 . On November 17, 1740, he received citizenship of the city of Würzburg. At that time he was already married to the Würzburg widow Maria Rosina Römelein.

Wolcker certainly owned a house in Würzburg and it is very likely that he took over the house of his wife Maria Rosina Römelein. Where the house was, what value it was and all other circumstances of its private existence in Würzburg have not yet been researched. The first husband of the widow Maria Rosina Römelein and whether there were any children from this marriage are still unknown. We also do not yet know whether Johann Michael Wolcker had children with his wife. In any case, if there were any, they did not live to see adulthood, because Johann Michael Wolcker died without direct heirs.

His wife probably died before 1775, because in 1775 he left Würzburg at the age of 73 and returned to Schelklingen to his brother Gottfried and his large family, where he stayed until his death. He died in Schelklingen on October 16, 1784.

The Schelklinger death book describes him as a pictor . In his will he left a relatively large fortune. His will, written on May 16, 1784, shows that he had his own household in Schelklingen and was looked after by his housekeeper ("Hausere") Elisabetha Dreher. He is not known to have his own house in Schelklingen, apparently he lived for rent.

In his will, he first gave the poor of the city an alms of 150 florins. They were supposed to say a prayer by five Father Our and Ave Maria in the church, after which the money was to be distributed to young and old by Josef Walter and his cousin Franz Ruesch . Both of the latter should receive 2 fl as a reward. If the wife Eva Barbara of his brother Gabriel was still alive in Wiesentheid , she was to receive the sum of 50 florins from the 150 florins.

Secondly , the daughter Scholastica of his deceased brother Gottfried in Schelklingen, and the daughter Maria Anna Wolckerin of his brother Gabriel , wherever she should be, should each receive 25 fl, i.e. a total of 50 fl in advance.

Thirdly, he bequeathed all the chattels and household items to his housekeeper Elisabeth Dreher, with the exception of all his clothes, his silver sword, the hanging clock and the existing paintings, from which she could choose four or five pieces. This was the reward for over 30 years of friendship and especially for 15 years of faithful service. The silver spoons and the two pairs of knives should go to the five main heirs listed below.

Fourth , his sister-in-law Brigitta Wolcker geb. Abbt, widow of his brother Gottfried, if she should survive him, 12 fl will be given as a souvenir. But if she should already have died, these 12 fl should be distributed to the poor again.

Fifthly , he named the four daughters of his brother Gottfried named Scholastica in Schelklingen as the five main heirs; Maria Johanna in Schelklingen, widow of the office administrator Franz Karl Kneer; Victoria, wife of the hunter in Roth ; Maria Anna in Schelklingen. After all, the fifth main heiress was Maria Anna, daughter of his brother Gabriel, wife of the hunter in Wiesentheid. Individual provisions still regulated the case that one of the five main heirs should already have died and to whom the money should then be due.

A little later Johann Michael Wolcker died on October 16, 1784 in Schelklingen at the age of 82 years. On October 23, the division of the estate was carried out according to his will.

Works

Johann Michael Wolcker worked mainly in the Würzburg area as a church painter . The following list of his works is likely to be extremely incomplete. The reason is that no serious research has been done on him. If one looks at the works documented so far, the vast majority can be ascribed to the genre of church panel paintings and church frescoes. Interestingly enough, he also painted portraits: one of these has been preserved by none other than the wife of Empress Maria Theresa of Habsburg Austria, namely Emperor Franz I Stephan . All individual circumstances of his work in Würzburg, z. B. How he got his assignments, in which circles of traffic, colleagues and relatives he frequented, whether he took on public offices, etc. have not yet been researched. In any case, he seems to have earned and managed properly, because when he died he left behind - for Schelklinger standards at least - a considerable fortune.

When he died in 1784, he left behind a large number of "grindings", of which his housekeeper could choose four or five. The city council found these paintings to be of no particular value in the inventory of bequests, and since they were distributed among the heirs anyway, they were not assessed. The whereabouts of these paintings is unclear.

  • 1737: Altar pictures with Saints Maximus and Aloisius in the Catholic parish church in Frickenhausen am Main
  • 1743 ?: Altar sheet for the high altar of the parish church in Unterleinach , painted by "Michael Wolkert"
  • 1748: Altar sheet “Bread Multiplication” in the Arnstein Hospital Chapel (Lower Franconia) , inscribed “JM Wolcker pinxit Wirtzb. 1748 "
  • 1748: Altar sheet of the right side altar in the cemetery chapel in Gerolzhofen , inscribed "JM Wolcker pinxit 1748"
  • 1749: Ceiling painting ("Representation of the sky with many figures of saints") in the library of the convent building of the Cistercian Abbey of Bildhausen , inscribed "JM Wolcker pinxit 1749"
  • 1750: Middle picture of the high altar ("St. Veit") and the ceiling painting of St. Veit in Dittigheim , inscribed "M. Wolcker 1750 "
  • 1752: Picture of the All Saints Altar in Dittigheim , inscribed “M. Wolcker pinxit 1752 "
  • 1753: Ceiling painting (fresco) middle picture ("Adoration of the Holy of Holies") in the parish church in Volkach , inscribed "Ioann Michael Wolcker Pinxit 1753", surrounded by six small pictures: Manna rain, Abraham and Melchizedek, scouts with the grape, sacrifice of Abraham, the Holy and Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem
  • 1774? Altarpiece from the former infirmary “St. Nikolaus ”near Würzburg , signed“ JM Wolcker [pinxit] 1774? ”. The picture was last in the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg and burned in 1945.

literature

  • Arthur Bechtold, From the old Würzburg: Contributions to the cultural history of the city . Würzburg-Aumühle: Konrad Triltsch, 1940.
  • Royal Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior for Church and School Affairs (Ed.), The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria . Munich: Oldenbourg.
  • ibid. Vol. III: Administrative region of Lower Franconia & Aschaffenburg. Part 1: District Office Ochsenfurt (1911).
  • ibid. Vol. III: Administrative region of Lower Franconia & Aschaffenburg. Part 3: Würzburg District Office (1911).
  • ibid. Vol. III: Administrative region of Lower Franconia & Aschaffenburg. Part 6: District Office Karlstadt (1912).
  • ibid. Vol. III: Administrative region of Lower Franconia & Aschaffenburg. Part 8: District Office Gerolzhofen (1913).
  • ibid. Vol. III: Administrative region of Lower Franconia & Aschaffenburg. Part 10: City of Bad Kissingen and District Office Kissingen (1914).
  • Kraus, Franz Xaver (Ed.) (1898), The art monuments of the Grand Duchy of Baden: descriptive statistics. Vol. IV, Part 2: The art monuments of the district of Tauberbischofsheim: (District Mosbach) , arr. by Adolf von Oechelhäuser. Freiburg i.Br .: Academic Publishing Bookshop Mohr.
  • Heinrich Mayer, The art of the Bamberg area. Volume 1: Western half . Bamberg: St. Otto-Verlag, 1930.
  • Alexander von Reitzenstein and Herbert Brunner (1974), Reclam's Art Guide Germany: Vol. 1: Bavaria . 8th edition Stuttgart: Reclam.
  • Johann Michael Wolcker . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 36 : Wilhelmy-Zyzywi . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1947, p. 184-185 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thieme-Becker 1970, pp. 184f. No. 6.
  2. ↑ Würzburg Council Book 217, fol. 35R. Kind message from Ms. Renate Schindler dated March 10, 2015, Acting Head of the Würzburg City Archives.
  3. ↑ Stadtarchiv Schelklingen A 604 No. 240: Testament of May 16, 1784 and division of the inheritance of October 23, 1784 with additional files.
  4. ^ Probably the community of Rot an der Rot, Biberach district, Tübingen district, Baden-Württemberg.
  5. ^ The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1911, vol. 3, part 1, p. 89 u. 292.
  6. ↑ Mayer 1930, p. 52.
  7. ↑ The Art Monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1911, Vol. 3, Part 3, p. 171.
  8. ^ The art monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1912, vol. 3, part 6, p. 44 u. 186.
  9. ↑ The Art Monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1913, Vol. 3, Part 8, p. 120.
  10. ↑ The Art Monuments of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1914, Vol. 3, Part 10, p. 69.
  11. ↑ Kraus 1898, p. 19f.
  12. ↑ Kraus 1898, p. 19f.
  13. ↑ Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kingdom of Bavaria 1913, Vol. 3, Part 8, p. 241; See also Reitzenstein and Brunner 1974, p. 819.
  14. ↑ Depot of the Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg on the Marienberg Fortress, inventory no. 33059; Kreisel 1942, p. 76.
  15. ↑ Communication from the Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg of March 24, 2015 (Frauke van der Wall). Black and white photograph of the painting reproduced in Bechtold 1940 (panel after p. 24).
personal data
SURNAME Wolcker, Johann Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German high baroque painter in Würzburg
DATE OF BIRTH baptized May 12, 1702
PLACE OF BIRTH Rogue blades
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1784
Place of death Rogue blades