Matthias Buchinger

Matthias Buchinger: self-portrait
(date of birth incorrectly stated here)

Matthias Buchinger (also Buckinger ; born June 3, 1674 in Ansbach ; † between August 10 and 16, 1739 in Cork , Ireland ) was a German artist , musician, draftsman, calligrapher and magician who was born without hands and feet and was only 74 centimeters tall.

life and work

Matthias Buchinger was born in Ansbach as the ninth child of his parents. His rudimentary hands were sitting on the elbows, a so-called tetra - amelia , and were described as cherry divided into three parts (three-part cherry).

He traveled through German cities as a sleuth and exhibited himself, in 1708/1709 he was in Nuremberg, where he was banned from performing in 1708, in Stuttgart in 1709 and in Regensburg in 1716 . Buchinger's royal audience included the French King Louis XV. , the Swedish king, the Austrian emperors Leopold I , Joseph I and Karl VI. as well as the German Kaiser.

In 1717 he went to England to get an audience at the court of King George I , which he was not granted. Buchinger then traveled on to Ireland, where he gave public performances in Dublin in 1720 and in Belfast in 1722 . In doing so, he became famous under the name Little Man from Nuremberg. His admirers included Robert Walpole and Edward Harley , whose Harleian Collection contains some of Buchinger's manuscripts.

Despite his handicap, Buchinger was a skilled artist, best known for his engravings and drawings. In one of his self-portraits, for example, the hair depicted consists of micrographic sentences from seven biblical psalms that can only be read on closer inspection. As a magician he made balls disappear, birds seemingly appear out of nowhere, was allegedly unbeatable in card games and allegedly an excellent archer. Buchinger played his own compositions on zither , guitar, flute, trumpet, oboe, bagpipes and cymbal .

The Flemish Peter Tillemans painted a portrait sketch.

Buchinger was married four times and had eight, other sources name twelve, children. He died in Cork, Ireland in 1739.

At the beginning of 2016, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York showed drawings by Buchinger from the Ricky Jay collection .

Contemporary representations

Lectori Benevolo Salutem .: With the consensus and permission of a high-ranking government / all curious lovers here imagine a strange bier and artificial person / nobody will have seen anything like that / by drilling without hands and feet / and its length not more than five quarters is long; But by God's grace all kinds of very curious and interesting pieces can be presented. Hanover, 1701 ( one sheet ), evidence from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library
Heinrich Christoph Büttner : The artificial cripple. in: Heinrich Christoph Büttner (ed.): Franconica, contributions to the history, topography and literature of Franconia , first volume. Ansbach: WG Gassert, 1813, pp. 237–242 ( books.google.de ).

literature

Buckinger, Matthias . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 5 : Brewer-Carlingen . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1911, p. 183 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
Walter M. Brod: The scribe Matthias Buchinger. In: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch. 37, 1985, pp. 91-102.
Ricky Jay: Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. Villard Books, New York, 1986.
Hans Wechsler: Matthias Buchinger. An Ansbach pocket player in the 18th century. In: Ansbach yesterday and today. 46, 1989, pp. 1104-1111.
M. Van Stone: Buchinger, Matthias . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 14, Saur, Munich a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-598-22754-X , p. 678.
Ricky Jay: Matthias Buchinger: "The Greatest German Living". Siglio, Los Angeles 2016, ISBN 978-1-938221-12-5 ( publisher's announcement ).

Web links

Commons : Matthias Buchinger - Collection of Images

Matthias Buchinger in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
Rediscovery: Matthias Buchinger in the Metropolitan Museum New York a radio report on the radio program Bayern 2

Individual evidence

↑ Ricky Jay: Matthias Buchinger . "The Greatest German Living" . siglio, Los Angeles 2016, ISBN 978-1-938221-12-5 .
↑ Come in, gentleman. An American author - himself a sleuth - wrote a story of jugglers, trick artists and fairground curiosities . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 1987 ( online ).
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d M. Van Stone: Buchinger, Matthias . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 14, Saur, Munich a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-598-22754-X , p. 678.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sabine Haubner: A genius thanks to handicap in “frankenmagazin”, March / April 2016, pages 63ff.
^ Matthias Buchinger's Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
↑ Charles McGrathan: Ricky Jay and the Met Conjure Big Magic in Miniature. In: The New York Times . January 13, 2016

personal data
SURNAME	Buchinger, Matthias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Buchinger, Matthew; Buckinger, Matthias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German artist, draftsman, calligrapher, musician, magician
DATE OF BIRTH	June 3, 1674
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ansbach
DATE OF DEATH	between August 10, 1739 and August 16, 1739
Place of death	Cork , Ireland

[1] Ricky Jay: Matthias Buchinger . "The Greatest German Living" . siglio, Los Angeles 2016, ISBN 978-1-938221-12-5 .

[2] Come in, gentleman. An American author - himself a sleuth - wrote a story of jugglers, trick artists and fairground curiosities . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 1987 ( online ).

[AKL678-3] A ^b ^c ^d M. Van Stone: Buchinger, Matthias . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 14, Saur, Munich a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-598-22754-X , p. 678.

[SHimFM-4] Sabine Haubner: A genius thanks to handicap in “frankenmagazin”, March / April 2016, pages 63ff.

[5] Matthias Buchinger's Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[6] Charles McGrathan: Ricky Jay and the Met Conjure Big Magic in Miniature. In: The New York Times . January 13, 2016