Johann Wilhelm Lanz

Johann Wilhelm Lanz (* 1725 ; † in the 18th or 19th century ) was a German porcelain maker .

life and work

Johann Wilhelm Lanz was already working for Paul Hannong in Strasbourg around 1750 and, after he moved to Frankenthal, belonged to the first generation of porcelain makers in the local manufactory . His work there can be traced from 1755 to 1761.

Putto with panther , 1755/56

Hannong had initially produced faience in Strasbourg , but then heard about the "Arcanum" of the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger and decided to devote himself to the manufacture of porcelain. In 1753 he got in touch with Madame de Pompadour , who was a passionate collector of Meissen porcelain , in order to obtain the approval of a porcelain manufacturer. However, the Pompadour was already the patron of the Manufactory in Vincennes Castle , whose director apparently ensured that Hannong not only withheld his approval, but also that his business in Strasbourg was closed. Thereupon Hannong emigrated to the domain of Elector Carl Theodor to Frankenthal, where he opened his factory in June 1755 in a former barracks. From 1762 this was directly subordinate to the elector. In Frankenthal, many designs that Lanz had already created in Strasbourg were used.

Works

Lovers with a bird and a nest , around 1760

Johann Wilhelm Lanz designed themes from ancient mythology, such as the robbery of Helen around 1757 , allegories , comedy scenes, farmers, vintners, craftsmen, hunters, animals, putti and the Chinese figures popular in the 18th century. The body language and gestures of his characters are lifelike; many scenes are also humorous, such as the cook making sausages in a chamber pot and the cook beating eggs into a pointed cap. One of Lanz's most impressive works is probably a Chinese pavilion, on the roof of which sits a dragon on which a Chinese man with an umbrella is seated.

The sweeping rocaille shapes , which form the arbor-like background for numerous portrayals of people, are characteristic of many of his works . One example of this is the lovers in a vine arbor from 1760, which was developed from a simpler predecessor model.

Lanz also worked in part with colleagues, for example on a rococo vase, whose base and hunter figures were created by Johann Friedrich Lück , while Lanz took on the decoration with animal figures.

Museum holdings

Around 1000 works from the Frankenthal porcelain factory, including numerous Lanz's creations, are in the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim . Most of them come from the collections of Carl Baer , Hans Hermannsdörfer and Jean Wurz . The Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg owns around the same number of porcelain items from Frankenthal's production . The Erkenbert Museum in Frankenthal, which has hunting and animal scenes by Lanz in particular, and the Speyer Historical Museum , including the apple seller , the traveling journeyman , Amor as a lemonade seller and Neptune on the wagon , also have considerable holdings . The Neptune on the wagon represents a high point in Frankenthal porcelain painting. The Speyr Museum bought the piece in 1914 and lost it during World War II when the Germersheim casemates were looted by French officers. In 1988 the museum was able to repurchase the figure. It belongs to a series of gods created by Lanz, in which Pluto, Venus and Neptune were also depicted in the chariot. In Benrath there are several Lanzsche idols; the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a Lanzian dancer from 1757, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Indianapolis Museum of Art have lovers with a bird and the Berlin Museum of Applied Arts has a putto with a panther. A faience Konsoluhr with Chronos from the Strasbourg period owns the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts ; it bears the inventory number 1914.251.

literature

Barbara Beaucamp-Markowsky: Frankenthal porcelain. The plastic . (= Publications of the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums; 21). Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7774-3065-2
Franz Swoboda: Lanz, Johann Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 625 f. ( Digitized version ).