Leopoldsbrunnen
The Leopoldsbrunnen (rarely: Leopoldbrunnen ) is a listed building near Innsbruck's old town. The fountain in front of the House of Music not far from the State Theater opposite the Hofburg am Rennweg shows an equestrian statue of Archduke Leopold V (1586–1632) , who was Prince of Tyrol from 1623 to 1630 and who gave the fountain its name.
meaning
The Archduke Leopold equestrian statue is the main work of the famous sculptor Caspar Gras (1585–1674) and at the same time one of the most artistically important monuments in Austria from the early Baroque period.
Caspar Gras was the first artist who succeeded in implementing the levade's jump position, which was extremely difficult from a casting point of view , in which the horse holds the balance free-standing on the two hind hooves without using the tail as a third support: a technical and artistic achievement of its time and trend-setting for equestrian monuments of the baroque and classicism. Positioning the horse only on the two hind legs was a static challenge, which was solved, among other things, by a weight made of lead in the tail for stabilization. In addition to the equestrian statue, Casper Gras designed ten other allegorical figures of goddess figures and sea deities
The original installation concept, which goes back to the baroque artist and Innsbruck court architect Christoph Gumpp (1600–1672), was lost; possibly the bronzes were originally intended for a fountain ensemble based on the model of the southern German "pleasure fountain", in particular the Augustus fountain in Augsburg .
The bronzes cast by Heinrich and Friedrich Reinhardt can be traced back to the inventory of Ambras Castle and are therefore among the objects that the federal government has given to the KHM Museum Association .
history
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Archduke Leopold V had the equestrian statue made by his court boss Caspar Gras together with ten other outstandingly designed allegorical figures as an expression of his absolutist claim to power . The large-scale representation project, however, remained unfinished with Leopold's death in 1632.
The bronze figures were completed by Heinrich and Friedrich Reinhardt from 1622 and then went through an eventful history of installation. The equestrian statue was first erected in front of the former court theater (today the state theater) in 1826. The allegorical bronzes had an impact on Innsbruck's cityscape even earlier, but initially only temporarily and separately from each other, and were placed along the Rennweg and in the Hofgarten . The unclothed figures caused a nuisance in the time of Andreas Hofer; then he wanted to melt down the works of art.
At the end of the 19th century there were plans to build a fountain in the Ambras Palace Park to replace the renaissance ball game house from the time of Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595), which had been demolished due to dilapidation ; However, only with the fountain figures without the equestrian statue of Leopold V. Preference was given to an overall solution in Innsbruck city center on the occasion of the Tyrolean State Exhibition in 1893. For this purpose, all bronzes were loaned to the city of Innsbruck and finally brought together as a fountain monument opposite the Innsbruck Hofburg in 1893 according to plans by the state curator Johann Wunibald Deininger and Heinrich Fuss .
Around a hundred years later, the pool figures surrounding the equestrian statue were replaced by copies; the originals found their way to the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinand as permanent loans from the Kunsthistorisches Museum .
The construction of the Haus der Musik Innsbruck in the summer of 2015 temporarily made it necessary to completely dismantle the Leopoldsbrunnen, in the course of which the equestrian statue was restored. In 2018, the Leopoldsbrunnen was rebuilt a few meters from the previous location. While the copies of the ten fountain figures were installed immediately, the erection of the equestrian statue was delayed. In the meantime, the memorial was repeatedly used humorously when it was vacant, with a paper mache dinosaur, a bicycle or a traffic sign anonymously lifted onto the base as political messages. After the liability issue between the city and the KHM Museum Association had been clarified, the equestrian statue finally returned to its place, where the work of art was ceremoniously unveiled on October 10, 2019.
description
Structure and figures
In the center of the almost square fountain basin, a central structure rises up, which is also made of stone and is adorned with the bronze equestrian statue of Leopold V. Round arch niches with shells were built on the lowest part of the four sides of this structure. Statues of Neptune and Triton can be seen on the narrow sides. Satyr heads were attached to the shells on the broad sides. Volutes can be seen in front of the beveled corners of the tapered central zone . Above this, four boys cast in bronze hold shell-like vessels that are filled with water by smaller spitting lion heads.
Leopold himself had been depicted calmly and dignified in contemporary clothing (breeches, steep ruff). The head of the sovereign was depicted true to the portrait; he once held a general's staff in his right hand.
Caspar Gras is usually regarded as the creator of the bronze figures, but Johanna Felmayer attributed them to his teacher Hubert Gerhard , who lived in Innsbruck from 1602 to 1613.
| figure | Location | Specialty |
|---|---|---|
| River god Oceanus | SW corner | left leg drawn up, with dolphin |
| Diana | NW corner | with hunting spear and deer |
| Amphitrite | NE corner | leaning on a vase |
| Moss goddess | SO corner | includes a crane |
| Neptune | Front of the center plinth | sits on a turtle and holds a trident |
| Triton | East side of the central plinth | sits on a dolphin and blows into a shell |
Inscriptions
While coats of arms can be seen on the sides facing east and west, inscriptions have been placed on the long sides of the fountain basin:
South side:
Leopold V. Archduke v. Austria
Count of Tyrol MDCXIX - MDCXXX
North side:
Erected by the city of Innsbruck
MDCCCXCIII
literature
- Christoph Hölz, Klaus Tragbar, Veronika Weiss (Hrsg.): Architectural guide Innsbruck . Haymon, Innsbruck 2017, ISBN 978-3-7099-7204-5 , pp. 39 .
- Scheicher, Wiesauer: Laufbrunnen, Leopoldsbrunnen. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 17, 2019 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Erich Egg : Caspar Gras and the Tyrolean bronze casting of the 17th century. In: Publications of the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Volume 40 (1960), pp. 5–57 ( PDF; 18.6 MB )
- ↑ The secret is out - PROVINNSBRUCK.at. Retrieved October 15, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Bicycle instead of monument: Leopoldsbrunnen is being used for a different purpose. Retrieved October 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Unterthurner Barbara: On horseback in the Kulturquartier: Leopold statue back in Innsbruck. October 10, 2019, accessed October 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Leopold is firmly back in the saddle . tirol.orf.at of October 9, 2019
- ^ Anton Prock: Innsbruck sights. Leopoldsbrunnen. 2010, accessed April 22, 2014 .
- ^ Johanna Felmayer: Hubert Gerhard in Innsbruck and the tomb of Maximilian the German master. Backgrounds, contexts, perspectives. Edited and edited for publication by Gabriele Werner-Felmayer, Stefanie Holzer and Walter Klier. Studies Verlag, Innsbruck 2005, ISBN 978-3-7065-1821-5
Coordinates: 47 ° 16 '8.76 " N , 11 ° 23' 44.2" E