Matthäus Günther

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-portrait by Matthäus Günther, 1763
Günther's self-portrait on a fresco in the Rosary Chapel in the former Augustinian canons in Indersdorf

Matthäus Günther , also Mathäus Günther (born September 7, 1705 in Tritschenkreut (then Tritschengreith ) near Unterpeißenberg ; † September 30, 1788 in Haid near Wessobrunn ) was a Bavarian painter and graphic artist of the Baroque and Rococo times.

Life

Matthäus Günther was the first of twelve children of the farmers Jakob Günther and Maria geb. Lagelocher (also Lengelacher), in Tritschenkreuth, today market town Peißenberg, to the world, in a time when the electorate of Bavaria suffered under imperial Austrian occupation. The fateful chain of events culminated in the Sendlinger Murder Christmas 1705 and the massacre on Handlberg near Aidenbach on January 8, 1706.

Günther probably met some of the up to 300 artists who were employed there at an early age at school in the Benedictine monastery in Wessobrunn and showed an interest in painting. In Wessobrunn, the place where the first written text document in German language was found, the Wessobrunn Prayer , master builders , fresco painters and plasterers worked together in their unmistakable and Europe-wide-known style of the Wessobrunn School during the Baroque and Rococo periods . It is not known who first discovered and promoted the artistic potential of the young Matthäus; in any case, although he was the first-born and therefore actually privileged, he did not take over the parental farm, but completed an apprenticeship as a painter with Simon from 1721 to 1723 in nearby Murnau am Staffelsee Bernhardt and then worked in Munich from 1723 to 1728 as a journeyman to Cosmas Damian Asam , the elder of the famous Asam brothers .

At the beginning of the 18th century, Munich, Innsbruck , Konstanz and Ulm had developed into strong competition for the formerly leading Free Imperial City of Augsburg in the field of fresco painting in the southern German and Alpine regions . The order situation for the Augsburg workshops was therefore relatively poor until the young painter Johann Georg Bergmüller from Mindelheim, who became famous in Düsseldorf , settled there and quickly gained success and fame as a painter of altarpieces , copperplate engravers and frescoes. He was appointed head of the Augsburg Art Academy , which grew significantly under him.

After his apprenticeship with Asam, Günther also moved to Augsburg and in 1731, by marrying the widow of the painter F. Mack, acquired the so-called master’s justice , which was still rooted in the medieval legal system and was necessary in order to become an Augsburg citizen with all civil rights . In 1740 Günther acquired the estate of Johann Evangelist Holzer with numerous oil sketches.

In 1761 Günther widowed and in 1763 married the twenty-two-year- old widow of his Wessobrunn friend Johann Georg Üblhör (also: Ybelherr ), who had earned a good reputation as a plasterer in Augsburg. In the same year, due to his high reputation, Matthäus Günther succeeded Bergmüller as head of the Augsburg Catholic Art Academy .

From around 1770 Augsburg's artistic reputation began to fade again. Some well-known artists died and there was no successor. The impoverishment associated with the decline in funding also led to the emigration of many artists. The city lacked the means to keep pace with up-and-coming cities such as Munich, Stuttgart , Mannheim , Berlin and Vienna , and attempts to revive the art business failed. Disappointed, Günther resigned from the position of director of the academy in 1784 and retired to the village of Haid near Wessobrunn, where he passed away four years later.

Matthäus Günther's younger brother Joachim Günther (1720–1789) was a court sculptor at Bruchsal , in the Prince Diocese of Speyer , his nephew Franz Christoph Günther (1770–1848) Cathedral Chapter and Apostolic Vicar in Speyer .

plant

In about 55 creative years, Günther shaped rococo painting in the southern German-Bavarian region as far as Württemberg , Franconia and Tyrol , where he furnished 40 churches. The documented complete works include around 70 frescoes and 25 panel paintings . His collaboration in 1723/24 in furnishing the Innsbruck Cathedral , which is also known as the baroque jewel of Tyrol , as a journeyman of the older Asam , is uncertain, but probably .

His first larger work for which he was solely responsible was the ceiling fresco, created in 1732 in the parish church of Druisheim not far from Donauwörth . In 1740 he painted the ceiling fresco in the vestibule of the Neustift monastery , municipality of Vahrn bei Brixen , on which the foundation of the monastery is depicted, as well as the frescoes in the nave of the collegiate church , which the art historian Georg Schrott considers the most beautiful baroque church in South Tyrol . Here Günther already proved to be a master of illusionist painting, as the pseudo-bulges shown impressively show. The influence of the Venetian master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , whom he met in Würzburg , where Günther decorated the Käppele , is unmistakable , while Tiepolo was simultaneously creating the famous ceiling painting in the stairwell of the episcopal residence in Würzburg .

The influence of the Venetian is particularly clear in Günther's late work, such as the village church of Grins in the Tyrolean Inn valley, painted in 1779 , where Günther depicts allegorical motifs of the personified church in a tie-polo-like scene , which offers refuge to the four continents known at the time. In Augsburg itself there are only a few works by Günther's hand, including in the Antonius Chapel and in the congregation hall of the former Jesuit college of St. Salvator , the so-called Small Golden Hall , with its ceiling fresco under the Isaiah motto “Ecce virgo concipiet” (after Isaiah, Chapter 7; accessible again after several years of renovation since 2005). In the tripartite fresco, Mary, as mediator, connects the earthly plane (the city of Jerusalem threatened by enemies with its deciding king Ahaz) with the heavenly Trinity, who appears in a shining circle of light. Marian scenes from the “Lauretanian Litany” in the four corner cartouches of the hall round off the ceiling fresco.

Günther's lifelong bond with Wessobrunn is evident on the one hand in his friendship with Übelhör, on the other hand in the close cooperation with the plasterers Franz Xaver and Michael Feichtmayr , with whom Günther often worked in Tyrol.

Works (selection)

Fresco with scene from the battle of Lepanto , Indersdorf , 1755
Draft for the ceiling fresco Aeneas in the New Palace in Stuttgart , 1757
Dome fresco in the Benedictine monastery church of St. Marinus and Anianus in Rott am Inn , 1763

Undated works:

literature

Web links

Commons : Matthäus Günther  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source on parents
  2. ↑ Festschrift Fiecht 1988, p. 61f. Part of the vault collapsed in 1750.
personal data
SURNAME Günther, Matthäus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Günther, Mathäus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1705
PLACE OF BIRTH Tritschenkreut near Unterpeißenberg
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1788
Place of death Haid near Wessobrunn