Johann Martin von Wagner
Johann Martin von Wagner , ennobled in 1825 (born June 24, 1777 in Würzburg , † August 8, 1858 in Rome ), was a German painter, sculptor and art collector and art agent of King Ludwig I in Rome. By donating his extensive art collection, the Martin von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg , which is named after him today, has become one of the largest university museums in Europe.
Life
Johann Martin Wagner was born as the son of the prince-bishop's court sculptor Johann Peter Wagner in Würzburg, attended the grammar school there and became a pupil of his father at the age of 19. From 1797 to 1802 he studied painting under Heinrich Füger at the Vienna Art Academy and in Paris, but then returned to Würzburg in 1802, as he ran out of funds.
In 1802 he received a first prize for his composition Aeneas asks Venus for his way to Carthage and the following year he took part in a prize for visual artists advertised by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the group of “Weimar Art Friends” on the theme of Ulysses soothes Polyphemus through wine . Not only did he win the prize of 60 ducats, but thanks to the poet's advocacy, he was also employed as a professor of the drawing arts at the University of Würzburg. This was combined with the offer to complete a two-year study visit to Italy.
When he arrived in Rome, because of a letter of recommendation from Goethe, Wagner became a drawing teacher in the house of Wilhelm von Humboldt , who was then in Italy as the Prussian envoy. The artist's stay in Rome was to last four years instead of two, and it wasn't the last. On his way home to Würzburg, Wagner met the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig in Innsbruck , and only two years later in 1810 he left his hometown again for Rome, this time on an official basis, as an art agent and art advisor to the Crown Prince. Martin von Wagner performed this function for a total of almost four decades, until 1848. Among other things, he advised Ludwig on putting together a collection of Greek vases and on building the Munich Glyptothek , for which he brokered the purchase of the Barberine Faun and the gable figures from the Aphaia Temple , for example .
In 1812, Wagner, on behalf of Ludwig I, acquired the ensemble of gable figures from the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina , the Aegine frieze , on the occasion of its auction on the Greek island of Zakynthos and had it brought to Rome. Here he supervised the restoration of the figures, which were executed in plaster of paris by Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1816 and then in marble by Carlo Finelli (1785–1853) and Peter Kauffmann . In 1823 the king appointed him general secretary of the Munich Art Academy.
Wagner's own artistic work, which had meanwhile shifted from painting to sculpture, faded more and more into the background. The work for Ludwig, on the other hand, was so successful that he - now King of Bavaria - elevated the artist with his outstanding knowledge of classical archeology and art history to the personal nobility in 1825.
Wagner's own largest sculptural work is the extensive relief frieze commissioned by King Ludwig I for the interior of the Walhalla : The procession of the Teutons from the Caucasus to Central Europe .
From 1831 Martin von Wagner lived as custodian in the Villa Malta , which he had acquired for Ludwig's stay in Rome in 1827. No wonder that the artist was not at all pleased when the king appointed him central gallery director of the Munich Pinakothek in 1841 . Wagner immediately submitted his resignation from this post - for which the king did not resent him; he was obviously aware that his "gray eminence in matters of art" could be of far more use to him in Rome.
In 1857 Martin von Wagner was made an honorary citizen of the city of Würzburg for his services to art and science. On December 7th, 1857 he signed a deed of donation with which he transferred all of his art possessions to the University of Würzburg. The university collections (antiquity, paintings and graphics) exhibited in the south wing of the Würzburg Residence since 1963 are therefore named after Wagner, namely Martin von Wagner Museum .
Martin von Wagner died in Rome on August 8, 1858. His grave is on the Campo Santo Teutonico .
Fonts (selection)
- Report on the Aeginetic sculptures in the possession of the Royal Highness of the Crown Prince of Bavaria . With art-historical notes by Fr. W. Schelling. Stuttgart and Tübingen 1817.
- The Colossi from Monte Cavallo , in: Kunstblatt 1824, No. 93 ff.
- The group of Niobe , in: Kunstblatt 1830, No. 51 ff.
Works (selection)
- The Holy Family and the Return of the Women from the Tomb of Christ , oil painting, around 1802
- The Rathschlagenden Heerführer vor Troja (The Council of the Greeks before Troy), 1807; Order of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig: Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum.
- Reconstruction proposal (discarded), building planning report and installation concept for the Aeginete frieze, 1815–1818
- Munich, Glyptothek (architect: Leo von Klenze 1818): Draft of the figurative decoration of the southern gable field and the facade niches
- Munich, Marstall building (architect: Leo von Klenze 1822): Draft of the facade design
- Walhallafries (1837), original model in the Martin von Wagner Museum
- sketchy concept for the monument to King Maximilian I Joseph in Munich in 1823 (with Leo von Klenze; execution: Christian Daniel Rauch)
- Munich, Siegestor: Draft of the figurative furnishings, around 1840 (Architect: Friedrich von Gärtner)
- Friedrich Schiller: The Eleusian Festival. Pictured by JM Wagner. Engraved by F. Ruscheweyh
literature
- Johann Martin von Wagner . In: Andreas Andresen : The German painter-Radirer (Peintres-Engraveurs) of the nineteenth century , according to their lives and works. 1. Vol., Rudolph Weigel, Leipzig 1872, p. 37ff., Digitized .
- Hyacinth Holland : Wagner, Johann Martin v. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 515-519.
- Reinhard Herbig (Ed.): Johann Martin von Wagner's description of his trip to Greece (1812–1813) based on the manuscript (= Würzburg Studies on Classical Studies 13). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1938.
- Guntram Beckel : Johann Martin von Wagner . In: Fränkische Lebensbilder (= Publications of the Society for Franconian History Series 7 A) Volume 8. Neustadt, Aisch 1978, pp. 228-256
- Siegfried Weiß : Johann Martin von Wagner's graphic designs for Munich , in: Wolf-Armin Frh. V. Reitzenstein (Hrsg.): Bavaria and the ancient world . CH Beck, Munich 1999, pp. 313-331.
- Bettina Kraus: Ludwig I. and his art advisor. The example of Johann Martin von Wagner . In: Franziska Dunkel (ed.): King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Leo von Klenze . Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-10669-2 , pp. 81-104.
- Nina Struckmeyer: Wagner, Johann Martin (from) . In: Bénédicte Savoy, France Nerlich (ed.): Paris apprenticeship years. A lexicon for training German painters in the French capital . Volume 1: 1793-1843 . De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, pp. 302–306.
- Stefan Morét: painter, sculptor, art agent and collector. Johann Martin von Wagner (1777-1858) . In: Dorothea Klein, Franz Fuchs (ed.): Kulturstadt Würzburg . Würzburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8260-5323-8 , pp. 197-233.
Web links
- Literature by and about Johann Martin von Wagner in the catalog of the German National Library
- Johann Martin von Wagner on publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de
- Publications on Martin von Wagner in the Bavarian Bibliography
Remarks
- ↑ Heinrich Ragaller: Martin Wagner's "Council of the Greeks before Troy". In: Art in Hesse and the Middle Rhine. Volume 3, 1963, pp. 107-130.
- ↑ Kunstblatt 1836, No. 98.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wagner, Johann Martin von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wagner, Martin von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter, sculptor and art collector |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 24, 1777 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wurzburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 8, 1858 |
| Place of death | Rome |