Johann Peter Wagner (sculptor)

Johann Peter Wagner

Johann Peter Alexander Wagner (born February 26, 1730 in Obertheres ; † January 7, 1809 in Würzburg ) was a German sculptor from the Rococo and early Classicism periods . He is considered one of the main representatives of rococo plastic in Main Franconia and created extensive works for ecclesiastical and secular clients in the 1760s and - appointed court sculptor - in the 1770s.

Life

Wagner was the fourth child of the sculptor Johann Thomas Wagner (1691–1769) and the first male offspring of his five siblings. First he attended school in Obertheres, a community on the banks of the Main about 40 kilometers west of Bamberg , and learned the craft of sculpting from his father.

At the age of 17 he left his parents' home in 1747 after a family quarrel and began the usual years of wandering . He first moved to Vienna , where his uncle Johann Wagner was based. There he worked in the workshops of various masters, including his uncle and Balthasar Ferdinand Moll . From there his studies took him to Mannheim until 1753 (according to the current state of research, with stops in Salzburg, Munich, Switzerland and the Netherlands) , where he apparently worked for a time in the workshop of Paul Egell or Augustin Egell .

After the death of his mother (1753) he returned to Franconia and settled in Würzburg by 1756 at the latest, where the art-loving Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim had been appointed Prince-Bishop the year before (two years later also Prince-Bishop of Bamberg ). Wagner initially worked as a journeyman to the court sculptor Johann Wolfgang van der Auwera , who died that same year. In 1759 Wagner took over the artistic direction of the workshop (until his death in 1766 together with Lukas van der Auwera , one of Wolfgang van der Auwera's brothers) and in the same year married the widow of Wolfgang von Auweras, Maria Cordula Curé (then 35 years old, So six years older than Wagner; she was the daughter of the Parisian court sculptor Claude Curé , who died in 1745 and from whom a bronze statuette of the hunting goddess Diana and other works in the Würzburg residence came from in 1724 by JA Roth. After the death of his first wife, he married Margaretha Rössinger in Würzburg in 1767, witnesses were the saltworks commissioner Johann Adam Schirmer and the court architect Johann Philipp Geigel. His son Johann Martin (1777–1858) learned to sculpt at his insistence, but later only worked as a painter. He was the art agent of King Ludwig I in Rome, was ennobled by him and left his art collections to the University of Würzburg (Martin von Wagner Museum).

Although he has been widely renowned for his work for years, Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim did not officially appoint Johann Peter Wagner as court sculptor of the Duchy of Würzburg until December 22, 1771 , a position he held for 28 years. His annual salary now consisted of 40 guilders and a few malters of grain. He had previously been paid between 16 and 18 thalers to make a life-size sandstone statue . Despite this relatively modest remuneration, Wagner acquired a considerable fortune through the large number of his orders. By being appointed court sculptor, Wagner gained a de facto monopoly in the area of ​​the prince-bishopric, particularly in the furnishing of churches. He not only made figures, but also erected complete pulpits and altar structures (around 100 in total).

During the secularization as a result of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, so during Wagner's lifetime, numerous works were removed from the churches and monasteries. They were scattered all over Lower Franconia and often did not get back to church premises until many years later, but often not at their original location. Many of his works can now also be found in museums, including in particular the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg (in addition to attributions there is also a signed group of figures Lamentation of Christ from around 1780, which was rediscovered in the Oberzell monastery ). The Martin von Wagner Museum in Würzburg also keeps hand drawings by Johann Peter Wagner. The basis of this museum, the extensive art collection of his son, arose from a collection of sculptures from earlier centuries that Johann Peter Wagner had already put together.

The elementary school in Wagner's birthplace Theres was named after him.

Style and way of working

Sculpture decorations, pulpit and altar in the Rococo style in the pilgrimage church of Maria Limbach

Detail of a design drawing by Johann Peter Wagner from 1763 for a rococo console for the Würzburg residence. The console has been in Veitshöchheim Castle since 1933.

Station of the Cross at the Würzburger Käppele

Early classical sculpture group in the courtyard garden of the Würzburg residence

The "Robbery of Europe " in the south garden of the Würzburg Residence

Balustrade of Veitshöchheim Castle with putti and vases

Typical of works from Wagner's hand are gestural and striding figures as well as the bulging, heavily undercut, rich folds of the robes. Often times the figures express inner emotion with their mouths open. His style changed from the lively Rococo in his early work after his appointment as court sculptor - in accordance with the artistic will of his employer - especially in his profane works to the quieter early classicism, in order to tend again towards the Rococo towards the end of his work. Wagner mainly worked with sandstone and marble, as well as wood and metal. The size spectrum ranges from miniatures to life-size groups of figures. Before the final design of his works, he usually made detailed draft drawings and bozzetti (models made of clay), on which a grid was then drawn, which was then transferred to scale on the stone block to be worked on. The grid can still be seen on some models.

Selection of works

• 1760: Altar of the Augustinian Church in Würzburg
• 1760: Sculpture fittings, pulpit and high altar (1761) of the pilgrimage church Maria Heimsuchung in Eltmann, Limbach district (first major order)
• around 1760/61: Wagner expanded a planetary machine made by Johann Georg Neßtfell on behalf of Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim with metal figure decorations with a scenic representation of the Ptolemaic system (illustration in the article on Neßfell).
• from 1761: three altars and a pulpit for the church of the Himmelpforten monastery in Würzburg; set up elsewhere today.
• 1763–1765: Four-tube fountain in Würzburg, executed together with Lukas van der Auwera based on a design
• around 1764: Altar and baptismal font of the parish church of Saint Mary of the Rosary and Saint Regiswindis, Gerolzhofen
• 1764: Side altars in the parish church of St. Justinus in Alzenau
• 1766: Crucifixion group in the church of St. Michael in Kürnach (only installed there in 1955); a copy is on the bridge over the Kürnach in front of the Griesmühle
• 1767: 14 groups of figures with a total of more than 60 individual figures for the stations of the cross at the Würzburger Käppele (pilgrimage church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary); Until the completion of the Way of the Cross in 1775 several journeymen worked on it under Wagner's direction; the figure of the pregnant Maria on the chapel facade above the entrance is also by Wagner
• from 1770: either from Wagner's own hand or at least from his workshop, most of the plastic jewelry in the court garden of the prince-bishop's residence in Würzburg ( putti , Savoyard boys , Moorish children, Chinese, the embodiment of Pluto , the robbery of Europe and the robbery of Proserpine on the Central axis of the south garden as well as numerous canapes , vases and plant bowls), some figures in the stairwell and in the vestibule ( Minerva , Bellona , both 1779) of the residence; As a successor to Ferdinand Tietz , Wagner also created the putti (now counted among the most important rococo children's figures in art history) on the balustrade of the terrace of the prince-bishop's palace in Veitshöchheim as well as figures in the eastern triangular zone of this garden (between the round tower and the snail shell). In 1772 he received 250 fl. For the altar of the Salinenkirche in Hausen (today St. Elisabeth's Church in Trimberg )  and 120 fl. For the pulpit (today Schönbornhalle Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg)  .
• 1772: Tabernacle on the high altar of the Bartholomäuskirche in Volkach
• around 1778: furnishing of the parish church St. Valentin in Rohrbach (district of Karlstadt)
• 1780: Tomb of Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim, who died the year before, in Würzburg's Kilians Cathedral
• 1780: High altar of the Maria Hilf chapel in Zellingen (only erected there when the chapel was renovated in 1892)
• 1787: Sculptures on the facade of the anatomy pavilion of the Juliusspital in Würzburg
• 1788, 1789: Tabernacle and assistant figures of the high altar in the Johanneskirche in Astheim
• 1785–1791: Sculptures in the Ebrach monastery church
• 1790: new main altar of the old town church in Freudenberg am Main (sold in 1961 to the parish of St. Brigitta in Sasbach )
• 1790: Interior fittings (pulpit and others) of the old parish church in Heidenfeld ; in the successor building completed in 1906
• 1791: Pulpit of the parish church in Volkach

literature

• Hans-Peter Trenschel (arr.): The Würzburg court sculptor Johann Peter Wagner (1730–1809). For the special exhibition of the Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg (February 26 - May 18, 1980) on the occasion of the 250th birthday of Johann Peter Wagner . Mainfränkische Hefte, 71. Friends of Mainfränkischer Kunst und Geschichte e. V., Würzburg 1980.
• Hans-Peter Trenschel (edit.), Haßberge district in cooperation with the Association of Adult Education Centers Haßberge e. V. (Ed.): Franconian sculpture at the end of a golden age: works by the court sculptor Johann Peter Wagner in the Haßberge district . Haßberge district, Haßfurt 1980.
• Hans-Peter Trenschel: The church works of the Würzburg court sculptor Johann Peter Wagner . Publications of the Society for Franconian History, series 8: Sources and representations on Franconian art history, Vol. 4. Schöningh (on commission), Würzburg 1968. Revised and expanded version of the dissertation at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Würzburg from July 22, 1966. ( Foreword online , PDF file; 45.5 kB)
• Beatrize Söding: Pietà representations by Johann Peter Wagner . In: Architecture and Figure . Munich 2007, pp. 440–453.
• Andreas Mettenleiter : The anatomical sculptures by Johann Peter Wagner on the facade of the July hospital garden pavilion in Würzburg. In: Würzburg medical history reports. 18. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1999.
• Werner Eberth : Contributions to the history of Hausen and Kleinbrach. Bad Kissingen 2010, p. 77 ff.

Web links

Commons : Johann Peter Wagner (sculptor)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Johann Peter Wagner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Johann Peter Wagner on the website of the city of Freudenberg am Main, with illustrations of the works
• Christ figure in the Golgotha ​​side chapel of the Neumünster Collegiate Church in Würzburg
• “Merkur” on the northern colonnade at Würzburg Residenzplatz , was created in the 1770s
• Gilded tabernacle structure on the high altar of the St. Vitus Church in Sailauf (altar table around 1760 by Balthasar Esterbauer ). Originally in Würzburg Kiliansdom, moved to Wörth am Main in 1874, in Sailauf since 1901 .
• wuerzburgwiki.de

Remarks

1. ↑ Baptism date
2. ↑ Stefan Kummer : Architecture and fine arts from the beginnings of the Renaissance to the end of the Baroque. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes; Volume 2: From the Peasants' War in 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814. Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8062-1477-8 , pp. 576–678 and 942–952, here: pp. 657–659.
3. ↑ Commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Peter Wagner's death  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Kurt Adelmann, Gaby Konrad, January 7, 2009  
4. ^ Website of the Johann-Peter-Wagner elementary school Theres
5. ↑ It is now kept in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich. ( Mechanical planetarium in the object database of the Bavarian National Museum)
6. ↑ Monasteries in Bavaria: Himmelspforten (PDF; 48 kB), Erich Schneider, House of Bavarian History
7. ↑ Christine Demel: The Kürnacher wayside shrines . Self-published, Kürnach 2006. ( Photo of the copy )
8. ↑ The figures in the Hofgarten have been replaced by copies for reasons of conservation since the 20th century.
9. ^ Andreas Mettenleiter : The anatomical sculptures by Johann Peter Wagner on the facade of the Julius Hospital garden pavilion in Würzburg. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 18, 1999, pp. 95-109.
10. ↑ The main altar of the old town church from 1790 ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.freudenberg-main.de 
11. ↑ More details in: Helmuth Lauf (author), Katholische Pfarrgemeinde Freudenberg (ed.): Building blocks of living faith. For the 300th anniversary of the consecration of the old Freudenberg parish church of St. Laurentius . Stieber Druck, Lauda-Königshofen 1997, pp. 53-55 and pp. 59-61. ( Online ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2020 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. As a PDF file) 
12. ↑ The St. Vitus Church in Sailauf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Parish Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Sailauf