Johannes Aberli

Johannes Aberli , also Johann Aberli and Jean Aberli (born January 5, 1774 in Murten , † April 24, 1851 in Winterthur ) was a Swiss medalist , stone and die cutter .

Life

family

Johannes Aberli was the son of the pharmacist Johannes Aberli († 1780) and his wife Elisabeth (née Vögeli). His uncle was the painter Johann Ludwig Aberli , who took care of the poor family after the early death of his father.

He was married to Veritas (née Sulzberger) since 1797; together they had four daughters and two sons. His son Friedrich Aberli (born February 24, 1800 in Winterthur; † December 19, 1872 there) became his pupil in 1814 and then worked together with him.

education

His uncle arranged that Johannes Aberli in Neuchâtel received his school education from Pastor Jean Stoll (1747-1833), while his mother and sister were accommodated in the rectory in Rafz .

In 1785, Aberli began an apprenticeship as a landscape painter in Bern with Heinrich Rieter , an employee of his uncle, in order to later succeed Johann Ludwig Aberli, who then died in 1786. Heinrich Rieter was now the administrator of his property and guardian of Johannes Aberli. He now recommended that he should rather complete an apprenticeship as a businessman , and so in 1787 he began an apprenticeship in the Schaffhausen cloth shop in Gaupp. During his apprenticeship, he continued his landscape painting and went on many excursions in the area around Bern. Due to a hearing impairment, he stopped working in the cloth shop a few months after completing his training and, from 1792 to 1794, was trained as a seal engraver and stamp cutter by Balthasar Vorster (1749–1826) in Diessenhofen in 18 months .

Career

In the period from 1794 to 1796 he worked for Friedrich Huber (1766–1832) in Basel , who also imparted knowledge of stone cutting and the manufacture of coin dies to him. From Basel he went to Strasbourg . After a few months he returned to Friedrich Huber in Basel, and then in 1796 he settled in Winterthur.

In 1799 and 1803 he carried out some work for the politician Johann von Wessenberg , which made him known abroad, as well as work for his brother, the Constance Vicar General Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg , who recommended him to others. Another sponsor was Karl Egon II zu Fürstenberg , who visited him several times.

Among other things, Aberli received orders from the wealthy Englishman Jakob van Matter, who had acquired the Goldenberg Castle near Winterthur. He had seen the engraving of the coat of arms of the city of Stein am Rhein , which showed the knight Georg killing the lindworm , and had Johannes Aberli carry out some commissioned work. He also made the coat of arms of the Bernese glass painter Ludwig Stantz in stone and in 1821 engraved the lion's medal at the opening of the Lucerne lion monument

In heraldic questions, he turned to the expert Johann Martin Usteri in Zurich, who had dealt intensively with this.

He was in correspondence with the secret finance councilor Albert Peter Heinrich von Zschock (1768-1845) and through this became acquainted with the mint master Gottfried Bernhard Loos , who had issued a series of commemorative coins from Brandenburg history and invited him to work for his mint .

Professional activity

Due to the quality of his work, but also thanks to the support of well-known patrons such as Prince Hans Georg von Fürstenberg and Minister von Wessenberg, Johannes Aberli gained a reputation far beyond the borders of his hometown. Numerous commissions for family and office seals, medals and cut stones made him one of the most sought-after artists in his field.

His most important works include the Reformation medals on Zwingli (1819) and the medal on the Lion Monument in Lucerne (1821). The most important of his seals is the large seal of the Confederation from 1815 made of carnelian , which represents a coat of arms.

estate

In the Münzkabinett Winterthur there are all medal works by Johannes and Friedrich Aberli as well as a number of stamps; as a permanent loan is there also an extensive collection of seal impressions of seals , cut stones and medals.

In the coin cabinet of the Swiss National Museum , a large collection of single and double-sided lead and pewter specimens from medals, coins and tokens is kept. The State Museum also has various seal stamps and cut stones.

Exhibitions

In 2014, the Münzkabinett Winterthur organized an exhibition in which 30 medals, several coins and around 1,200 seals were presented by Johann Aberli.

Work (selection)

• Military Merit Medal of the Zurich government for the suppression of the uprising of 1804.
• Great Medal of Merit of the Canton of Zurich. Following the example of those by Johann Caspar Mörikofer. (c. 1780/1790). 1806.
• School bonus from the Canton of Lucerne. After 1804.
• School bonus from the cantonal high school in St. Gallen. 1810.
• First Zwingli medal on the 300th anniversary of the Reformation in Zurich. 1819.
• Second Zwingli medal on the 300th anniversary of the Reformation in Winterthur. 1819.
• Medal of Merit of the Canton of Zurich. After 1819.
• Construction of the lion monument in Lucerne in honor of the Swiss Guards who fell in the Tuileries Tower in 1792. 1821.
• Erecting of the monument to commemorate the battle of St. Jakob an der Birs in 1444. 1823.
• Medal of Honor from the City of Solothurn for Ludwig Zeerleder von Bern. 1824.

literature

• Johannes Aberli. In: New Year's Journal of the Artists' Society in Zurich for 1853. 1853. pp. 1f.
• Jakob Melchior Ziegler: Johannes Aberli von Winterthur, medalist, stone and stamp cutter. 1853.
• Johann Aberli. In: New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library for the year 1873.

Web links

• Roland Brechbühl: Johann Aberli. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Roland Brechbühl: Friedrich Aberli. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
2. ↑ Huber, Johann Friedrich. In: Sikart
3. ^ C. Brun: Swiss Artist Lexicon . ISBN 978-5-87508-861-2 ( google.de [accessed on May 12, 2020]).
4. ↑ Historic Goldenberg Castle - Goldenberg Castle Winery. Retrieved May 11, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Sebastian Huhnholz, Eva Marlene Hausteiner: Political iconography and differential representation: Leviathan Special Volume 34 | 2018 . Nomos Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-8452-8540-5 ( google.de [accessed on May 10, 2020]).
6. ^ Benedikt Zäch: (1996) Two Winterthur medalists: Johann (1774–1851) and Friedrich Aberli (1800–1872) . ( academia.edu [accessed May 12, 2020]).
7. ^ Exhibition in Winterthur on medalists Aberli. Coin Week, accessed on May 12, 2020 (German). 
8. ^ Marie-Alix Roesle: Johann Kaspar Mörikofer. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
9. ↑ Ulrich Zwingli: Silver strike of the ducat on the 300th anniversary of the Reformation in Zurich in 1819. Museum in the Melanchthon House in Bretten, accessed on May 12, 2020 .