Johann Rudolph Schellenberg

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Portrait of Johann Rudolph Schellenberg, around 1770.

Johann Rudolph (or Rudolf ) Schellenberg (born January 4, 1740 in Basel , † August 6, 1806 in Töss near Winterthur ) was a Swiss painter , etcher , illustrator and entomologist . He is considered one of the most important illustrators of his time and the most important Swiss etcher of the 18th century.

Life

A page from Schellenberg's species of flies (1803)

Johann Rudolph Schellenberg was born as the son of the painter Johann Ulrich Schellenberg and the daughter of the painter Johann Rudolf Huber , Anna Katharina in Basel. The first artistic attempts were based on the suggestion of Johann Rudolf Huber. When he died in 1748, the family moved to Winterthur, the birthplace of the father. Here Schellenberg learned together with Anton Graff in his father's drawing school and worked in his workshop. He went back to Basel, where he tried his hand at landscape and portrait painting. Schellenberg's first genre paintings, especially shepherd plays and drawings by simple peasants, date from this period.

After a trip to Italy was not made due to Schellenberg's sudden illness, he returned to Winterthur, where he withdrew. Johannes Gessner from Zurich finally commissioned Schellenberg to produce natural history drawings for scientific purposes. Schellenberg moved back to Zurich, where he lived with his patron Gessner and made numerous drawings, mainly of insects. The first work, in which 52 etchings by Schellenberg appeared, was Johann Heinrich Sulzer's Marks of Insects in 1761 . The plant was a great success at home and abroad and helped Schellenberg to win new orders. In the following years, around 3800 entomological drawings were created, some of which were also published in Schellenberg's own works, for example in his work Genres des mouches - genres of flies , published in 1803 . One of his most important works today is the illustration of Johann Caspar Lavater's Physiognomic Fragments . Overall, Schellenberg's works can be found in around 170 books. Over 4000 illustrations were in his estate.

Johann Rudolf Schellenberg married Maria Magdalena Hegner in 1766, the couple had two sons who were also draftsmen and etchers, and four daughters. He finally died in Töss near Winterthur.

Johann Rudolph Schellenberg also trained numerous artists. His students include Johann Georg Penzel (1754–1809), Johann Heinrich Lips , Emanuel Steiner (1778–1831) and Johann Jakob Biedermann .

He founded the subgenus Adephaga SCHELLENBERG in 1806 in the zoological system of the beetles (Coleoptera).

One of over 4000 insect watercolors from Schellenberg's estate

Publications

Fonts

  • Pour raillerie. 1772.
  • Old Testament biblical story etched in copper. 1774
  • Plantes et arbustes d'agrément. 1791-1794.
  • Moral teaching in fables and stories for the young. 1794.
  • Short treatise on the art of etching. 1795.
  • Collection choisie de plantes et arbustes. 1797.
  • The sex of land bugs and water bugs sorted by family. 1800.
  • Entomological contributions. 1802.
  • Genera of flies. 1803.

Writings with Schellenberg's drawings

  • Johann Bernhard Basedow : Elementary work. 1774.
  • Johann Caspar Lavater : Physiognomic fragments. 1775-1778.
  • Johann Heinrich Sulzer : Abbreviated history of the insects. 1776.
  • Johann Kaspar Füssli : magazine for entomology lovers. 1778-1779.
  • Johann Caspar Füssli: Archive for insect history. 1778-1786.
  • Friend Hein's apparitions in Holbein's manner. With 25 etchings and verses by Johann Karl August Musäus . Mannheim, 1785 ( urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-75383 ) This frivolous dance of death, turning away from the conventional motifs, depicts the folly of people in a caricature-like manner, which is already expressed in the picture titles: Different people who one Look at the skeleton of the dead; below it says: Memento mori (1) The aerostat. A sphere of air in full flames (5). School visitation. Death under the door of a boys' school (6). Deceived expectation. Death as a woman to a gentleman (8). The usurer. He is crushed in his money box (14). The equilibrist. Death catches the rope dancer by the foot (16). Berthold Schwarz. The monk blown into the air by the violence of the ignited powder (19). Decision. Death between the artist and the poet holds both embraced (25).
  • Johann Jacob Römer : Genera Insectorum Linnaei et Fabricii iconibus illustrata. 1789.
  • Carl Ludwig Willdenow : Historia amaranthorum. 1790.
  • Hans Heinrich Heidegger: The reasonable village pastor. History as it is and how it should be throughout. Reading book for country clergymen and farmers. Zurich 1791. ( doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-16436 )
  • Carl Ludwig Willdenow: Helvetian Entomology. 1798.
  • Friend Hein's apparitions in Holbein's manner. Mannheim, 1803 ( urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-76350 )

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: The dance of death in the Alemannic language area. "I have to do it - and don't know what" . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2563-0 . P. 245f.

Web links

Commons : Johann Rudolph Schellenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Schellenberg, Johann Rudolph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schellenberg, Johann Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter, etcher, illustrator, botanist and entomologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1740
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1806
Place of death Töss (Winterthur)