Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz

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Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz (photo around 1850)

Johann Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz (born June 8, 1774 in Meiningen ; † September 1, 1863 there ) was a German ivory and stag horn carver . His works include goblets, pitchers, stag horn tobacco pipes, ivory goblets and beakers, candlesticks and host boxes.

Life and family

Ornamental jug with scenes from the Wars of Liberation (Prince Schwarzenberg brings the allied monarch the news of the victory over Napoleon near Leipzig on October 19, 1813), 1842, Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, inv. No. Hz 1294
Two trophies with scenes from the Wars of Liberation, 1842, Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Inv. No. Hz 1295

Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz was born in Meiningen in 1774 as the son of the court coach Johann Schulz. His father had a fatal accident in a horse-drawn carriage during a fire in the castle mill on October 19, 1817.

Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz was first married to Eva Maria Minor on March 28, 1798 (Meiningen). They had twin sons and four daughters. His first wife died on September 25, 1829. He remarried on August 11, 1830 in Meiningen Dorothea Minor, a sister of his first wife. She died childless on January 12, 1842.

In 1798, Duke Georg I awarded Schulz the title of “court turner”. In 1832 he received the great silver medal in Berlin, was appointed a member of the Royal Academy and was awarded the title of professor.

When the first municipal constitution came into being in 1835, Schulz was elected city councilor through the trust of his fellow citizens and worked as such for several years. Duke Bernhard II honored the local artist in 1836 with the award of the silver medal of merit of the Duke Ernestine House Order .

Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz died at the age of almost 90 on September 1, 1863.

His two sons Joseph (March 14, 1801, † January 21, 1867) and Wilhelm (March 14, 1801, † October 4, 1875) were also ivory carvers. They supported their father in his work and continued to run the workshop after his death.

Works

In his youth, Schulz was trained as an art turner. He mainly used ivory and stag horn as material for his carving and turning work. He made, among other things, stick handles, tobacco pipes, candlesticks, goblets, chalices, jugs, and host boxes.

Franz Kugler writes about him:

"No. 495 - A considerable number of ivory works were made by Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz (born 1774) zu Meiningen, partly in the last few years, and show a persistent care, a delicacy of the treatment, which for the present time, with a changed direction of taste , should give a peculiar value. In addition to some more subordinate objects, - candlesticks, a large tobacco pipe and the like. The like - which are adorned with various relief representations, but the main mass consists of stag horn, first of all three ivory beakers are to be mentioned, the exterior of which is surrounded with rich reliefs depicting hunting scenes (two of them based on compositions by Ridinger). …. "

In the beginning, Schulz chose some of his motifs from copperplate engravings by the animal artist Johann Elias Ridinger . In 1814, out of pure patriotism , he sent Count Blücher von Wahlstatt a tobacco pipe he had carved from Hirschhorn, on which the Battle of the Katzbach on August 26, 1813 was depicted, for which Blücher thanked him with a letter from Berlin on August 11, 1814. He also made such a tobacco pipe for the British general and statesman Wellington .

In an article in the Meininger Zeitung from the 1920s, it says:

“... since the great honorable commissions weren't too frequent, Schulz also carved many pipe bowls from stag horn with hunting and animal scenes, even whole pipes from stag horn in great perfection. Schulz was an avid patriot. In 1814 he paid tribute to the aged Field Marshal Blücher by carving him a tobacco pipe. The head showed the battle of the Katzbach, the main figure being the marshal himself leading the pursuit of the enemy, in front of him and to the side his hussar regiment. All the figures stand out white, finely polished from the dark brown stained ground. At the top it said: "August 26, 1813". The silver fittings represented a helmet. The bust of Frederick the Great and King Frederick William III were attached to the pipe. ... "

Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz's later works are more important, showing great care and delicacy and thus giving his works a typical character. One of the ivory trophies shows Grand Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar returning home from the hunt . The King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm III bought this cup . for 80 Friedrichs d'or . A similarly designed ivory cup passed into the possession of the English Queen Adelheid , who was a Meiningen princess.

With the support of his twin sons, Schulz later made several ivory communion cups ( Passion of Christ and Life of Mary ) based on woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer from his Great Passion .

The following motifs from the Passion of Christ, from the Lord's Supper to the Resurrection can be found on his host boxes or chalices:

  • Escape from Egypt
  • Consecration of the Lord's Supper and Christ on the Mount of Olives with the sleeping disciples (the relief portrait of the artist is at the bottom of the chalice)
  • The arrest of Christ and the delivery of the Savior to Pilate
  • Jesus on the way to Golgotha ​​hands over his cross to Simon
  • On a jug there is Christ on the cross on one side, and the resurrection of the Savior on the other. Jesus is sitting on the lid as a Jew with a sneering expression hands him the reed.

Other works (mostly cups of honor) have representations

Works by Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz can be seen in both the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin and the German Ivory Museum in Erbach .

literature

Web links

Commons : Lebrecht Wilhelm Schulz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chronicle of the city of Meiningen from 1676 to 1834. Meiningen 1834, p. 259 ( books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ Franz Kugler: Description of the royal. Kunstkammer zu Berlin existing art collection. Heymann, Berlin 1838, p. 288 f. ( books.google.de ).
  3. ↑ Meininger Zeitung. June 6th (year unknown until now, probably 1920s).
personal data
SURNAME Schulz, Lebrecht Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ivory carver
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Meiningen
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1863
Place of death Meiningen