Matthew Zehender

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthäus Zehender (born December 12, 1641 in Mergentheim , † 1697 in Bregenz ) was a South German painter of the Baroque .

Life

Zehender was born in Mergentheim, the second of five children. His father Hans (1612–1684) had moved there from Dunningen near Rottweil and married a widow eight years older than him. He was a 'tüncher' by trade, that is, he ran a painting workshop, probably that of his wife. The young Matthäus Zehender had known the destruction of the Thirty Years' War in his homeland. After the Peace of Westphalia and a phase of economic recovery, artistic life also got going again. At a time when there were still few baroque buildings in the Lake Constance area, Zehender played a significant role in the Counter-Reformation artistic boom.

plant

The Mother of God with the Child gives St. Dominic and the knight Steinmar the rosary (high altar picture in the monastery and parish church of St. Markus by Matthäus Zehender belonging to the monastery Sießen )

Matthäus Zehender initially worked as a painter's journeyman in Northern Italy, presumably with the Constance painter Johann Christoph Storer , who had settled in Milan. His first two table works can be found in Friuli, which he wrote in 1661 and 1664. From the end of the 1660s, Zehender was active in the Lake Constance region. The first known altarpiece north of the Alps was ordered by Abbot Otto Kübler from St. Blasien Monastery for the Höchenschwand church in 1671 . It represents the removal of Jesus from the cross.

For the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln , the artist created a cycle of Mary from several panel paintings in 1672 on behalf of the first Baroque building abbot, Augustin II. Reding von Biberegg. The relationship with Einsiedeln Abbey resulted in various deliveries of paintings for the Lieutenancy Sonnenberg and the Provostry of St. Gerold .

As a result, Bregenz became the focus of Zehender's work. In 1675 he painted five court scenes for the hall in the old Bregenz town hall in the upper town. From 1679 onwards he increasingly created altarpieces for regions in Upper Austria and Fürstenberg . Many of them were lost or destroyed in the 19th century, including those of the Mehrerau Benedictine Abbey and the picture cycle of the Seven Sorrows of Mary for the pilgrimage church of Bildstein made in 1683 during the Turkish siege of Vienna .

For the new church of the Dominican monastery in Habsthal , Matthäus Zehender delivered a side altar sheet in 1681 showing the stoning of Stephen, and another with the Dominican Terziarin Rosa von Lima. In 1684 he painted the large main altar painting "The Anointing of Bethanien" for the Dominicans in his hometown of Mergentheim, which has been hanging in the castle church of Bad Mergentheim since 1817. In 1691 the artist made the main altar sheet, which depicts Mary with the blessing baby Jesus and which is the theme of the foundation of the church in 1259 by the two Count Palatine Hugo and Rudolf von Tübingen. For the Dominican convent in Sießen he painted the main altar sheet in 1684 with the presentation of the rosary by Our Lady to St. Dominikus and to the founder of the monastery, the Swabian knight Steinmar von Strahlegg. In the following year, the side altarpiece of Our Lady with St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1690, Abbot Nikolaus Wierieth von Obermarchtal ordered the leaves of the two main side altars , the rosary and the sacrament altar, as well as a picture for another altar showing the sermon on the fish of St. Representing Anthony of Padua. The paintings in Habsthal, Sießen and Obermarchtal are Zehender's main works. In the Teutonic Order Museum Bad Mergentheim there is a painting with the judgment of Solomon.

The works of Matthäus Zehender are characterized by their subtle depictions of faces and the lovely figures of saints, in which the deep religiosity of the artist is expressed. It is typical for him that the Madonna as mother wears a red petticoat and a blue cloak in all of his pictures, as a virgin she wears a white dress and a blue cloak. Zehender created almost exclusively religious paintings.

The high altar picture in the Rauhenzell Church, marked with the year 1697, is the master's last work. In the same church there is a painting that was signed by Philipp Albert Zehender, the younger brother and assistant of Matthäus Zehender, and which also dates from 1697. Probably Matthäus Zehender had received the commission for both altarpieces and died after completing the first painting.

literature

  • Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke: Matthäus Zehender (1641–1697?) As a draftsman. In: Barockberichte No. 31, Salzburg 2001. pp. 23–30.
  • Eugen Eger : Matthäus Zehender. A religious Swabian painter of the 17th century. Dissertation, Stuttgart 1932. ( digitized version )

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A list of baroque sacred buildings, the construction of which began in southern Germany in the second half of the 17th century, can be found in: Eugen Eger: Matthäus Zehender. A religious Swabian painter of the 17th century. Dissertation, Stuttgart 1932, p. 64f.
  2. ↑ Catalog of Zehender's works, in: Eugen Eger: Matthäus Zehender. A religious Swabian painter of the 17th century. Dissertation, Stuttgart 1932, pp. 72-82.
  3. ↑ to the Peter Trenschel, German Order Castle Bad Mergentheim. With castle church and Teutonic Order Museum, Munich 1979
  4. ^ Pius Bieri: Baroque buildings in southern Germany and Switzerland, their builders and masters
personal data
SURNAME Zehender, Matthew
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South German Baroque painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1641
PLACE OF BIRTH Mergentheim
DATE OF DEATH 1697
Place of death Bregenz