Matthias Faller
Matthias Faller (born February 23, 1707 on the Oberfallengrundhof in Neukirch / Black Forest ; † February 3, 1791 in St. Märgen ) was a German monastery sculptor and wood carver . He is regarded as an important representative of his handicrafts in southern Germany at the transition between Baroque and Rococo . He is popularly referred to as "The Lord God Carver of the Black Forest".
Life and work
Matthias was the third of nine children of Oberfallengrundhof farmer Georg Faller (1675–1748) and his second wife Barbara Furtwängerlin (1679–1734). There are hardly any testimonials about his life, no bequests, no letters, descriptions of his person or the like. Only the diary notes of the abbots of St. Märgen and monastery files provide information.
After his apprenticeship with Adam Winterhalder in Vöhrenbach between 1721 and 1725, his years of traveling together with Winterhalder's son Johann Michael took him to Colmar , Augsburg , Munich , Regensburg , Vienna , Prague, Znaim and Olomouc .
He returned from his wanderings to his homeland around 1732 and created the altars in the newly built St. Andrew's Church in his home town of Neukirch as the first known work from 1732 to 1735 , including the Antonius Altar, which his father in memory of the shortly before her deceased mother had donated. Then he worked mainly for the monasteries St. Märgen and St. Peter . He entered the Augustinian Canons' Monastery of St. Märgen in 1735 as a brother "Floridus" in order to equip the newly built church there. But two years later he left the monastery again, as the subsequent abbot could no longer employ him as a sculptor for financial reasons. From then on he had his workshop on his parents' farm, but in 1741 he returned to the monastery for two years as the abbot's valet. In 1744/45 he worked on the high altar in St. Märgen. Altogether he created the carvings of all six St. Märgener altars, also the pulpit , in 1776/77 the organ front for the Silbermann organ and in 1779, at the age of 72, the shrine for the bones of the catacomb saint Constantius. The ensemble in St. Märgen is one of his main works. When the monastery church burned down in 1907, many of his carvings were saved. Further works by Faller were found in the Ohmenkapelle near St. Märgen, until they had to be removed due to the risk of theft.
At the age of 40, Faller married Maria Fehrenbach in 1747, who gave birth to her son Johann Nepomuk that same year. From 1751 to 1771 the family lived in St. Peter, where he first furnished the library in St. Peter's Monastery in the Black Forest based on designs by Johann Christian Wentzinger . But almost all of Rococo art is also his work in the church and in the house chapels. In 1755 the daughter Maria was born. Both children later worked in his workshop, the son as a wood sculptor, Maria as a barrel painter .
Mediated by St. Märgen and St. Peter, Faller received orders for the priories looked after by these monasteries such as St. Ulrich in the Black Forest and parishes such as Wyhl am Kaiserstuhl as well as for friendly monasteries, such as the Kartause Ittingen in the canton of Thurgau and the Charterhouse in Molsheim (not preserved) in Alsace .
In the last years of his life, the sculptor, whose work is otherwise almost exclusively devoted to religious themes, carved clock plates (the fronts of Black Forest clocks ) for elaborate flute and dulcimer clocks that were made in this area of the Black Forest.
Matthias Faller was buried at his own request after his death outside the Marienkapelle of the St. Märgen monastery.
literature
- Stephanie Zumbrink (conception): Matthias Faller - The baroque sculptor from the Black Forest . For the exhibition "Matthias Faller - the Baroque sculptor from the Black Forest" May 17 - September 2, 2007 in the St. Märgen Monastery Museum. Ed .: Community of St. Märgen. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2007, ISBN 978-3-89870-382-6 (standard work with biographical essays, art-historical classification and detailed annotated catalog raisonné).
- Manfred Hermann : The Black Forest sculptor Matthias Faller. His life and work in St. Märgen . Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2006, ISBN 3-89870-270-7 .
- Ernst Hug: Matthias Faller - the monastery sculptor of St. Peter and St. Märgen . St. Margen 1990.
- Ernst Hug: The monastery sculptor Matthias Faller 1707–1791 . St. Märgen 1990 (illustrated book).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Faller, Matthias |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German monastery sculptor and wood carver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 23, 1707 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oberfallengrundhof, Neukirch (Furtwangen in the Black Forest) |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 3, 1791 |
| Place of death | St. Märgen |