Matthias Wolcker

Matthias Wolcker , also Matthäus Wolcker (baptized on February 22, 1704 in Schelklingen ; † October 10, 1742 in Dillingen an der Donau ) was a German high baroque painter in Dillingen an der Donau.

Poultry dealer in Erbach Castle, painted in 1730

Anton Wenzeslaus Haffe and Matthias Wolcker: Dome fresco in Bertoldshofen , (stucco by Ignaz Finsterwalder ), 1733

Life

Wolcker was the third son of Johann Georg Wolcker the Elder and the younger brother of Johann Georg Wolcker the Younger . He was born in his parents' house in Schelklingen at Bemmelbergergasse 12 and was baptized Catholic on February 22, 1704 in Schelklingen. He probably learned painting from his father. Matthäus Wolcker ("Matheus Wolkhner") appears only once in a Schelklinger source: on February 3, 1725 he complained (Matthäus was 21 years old) to the magistrate about Conrad Premenstorfer that he scolded him as a "rascal" Pulled and tore down my hair when going home at night. Premenstorfer defended himself that Matthäus Wolcker had spoken to him very harshly "at the drink in the stag" and had said: "He probably knew what he had about him". Zacharias Schleibinger was able to testify to the course of events. The city council imposed a fine of 2 lb Heller on both of them, which was reduced to 1 lb Heller at their request. Premenstorfer's sentence - apparently he was much poorer than Matthäus Wolcker - was reduced to 17 Kreuzer after he pleaded again. The most comprehensive account of his life and work comes from a newspaper article by Friedrich Zoepfl, which should be quoted in full at this point. To this day there is little to add to Zoepfl's remarks. Where additions can be made, these follow the article.

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“The Dillingen painter Matthias Wolker

Many times, but always without success, after the | Master researched who in the years 1734/35 the ceiling frescoes | the Dillinger cath. Stadtpfarrkirche made. The Hoff | tion, it would like to clean and overhaul this | Frescoes in the years 1933/35 Master's name or maker's mark | come to light has not come true. Now the Mei- | let ster found unsearched.

While working through the Dillingen council minutes (Dillingen city archives) I came across the following entry in 1734 (between March 18th and April 8th): After the city parish | rer (Dr. Leonhard Lohbronner) with Matthias Wolker (written. Wollger), painter, Joseph Feistle, plasterer, Michael Müller, | City mason, the city sent chords made | they are presented to the masters involved before the council been read; then the masters are on the chords | been committed.

There can be no doubt that this is | Work for the baroque redesign of the parish church interior | which was carried out in the years 1734/35, and | that in Wolker, Feistle, Müller we have the main | have masters in front of us. That the Dillinger plasterer and Mau- | rermeister Joseph Feistle stuccoed the church was already | known; he has himself with JF over the middle | The south side portal can be recognized as a stucco master. New | is that the Dillingen city mason Michael Müller for | the construction work was used, and above all that Mat- | thias Wolker the execution of the painting work, in the main | thing about the ceiling frescoes.

What we know about Matthias Wolker's résumé (often | also called Matthäus) is very poor. One entry | in the Dillinger chamber bill of 1731 (city archive) let's assume that he came from Schelklingen (Württemberg). | Where he learned, where the wandering led him, when | he came to Dillingen is currently unknown. On the 26th of No- | November 1731 he married Maria Regina, the daughter of Dil- | linger painter Anton Wenzeslaus Haffe . The wedding took place | not in Dillingen, but in Asch (L.-Kr. Kaufbeuren), | where an uncle Wolkers, Johann Georg Einslin, was pastor. | Best man was, next to the village master Joseph Zeizler, who | Brother of the groom, the distinguished and busy | Augsburg painter Johann Georg Wolker, who, as after a | Letter from the Jesuit father Anton Zwicklin (temporarily Regens | in Dillingen) to the St. Gallen librarian Pius Kolb dated | 23 June 1758 is to be assumed that the (today disappeared) Al- | tar image of the Golden Hall in Dillingen. With | in the hand of M. Regina Haffe, Matthias Wolker Mei- | justice, civil rights and house in Dillingen. On the 11th | December 1731 he imposed the usual citizenship fee | of 2 guilders 52 cruisers. He had his house and workshop in that | today's rear building of the Knödler iron shop, monastery | street 13, he paid 4 guilders a year for this from 1732 42 | Cruiser 3 Heller. The marriage had a daughter M. Anna | Barbara, who was baptized on May 7, 1735. Godparents were | the rent master Franz Xaver Blank and the court councilor M. | Juliana v. Emerich. The noble status of the godparents speaks | for the fact that Wolker had a certain reputation in the || City delighted - perhaps thanks to the parish's ceiling frescos church, which were just approaching their completion. Already on | The master died in Dillingen on October 10, 1742.

We also know only a few of Wolker's works so far. | An insignificant oil painting by | hangs in Erbach Castle in his hand, "The Poultry Trader", 1730. In the | In 1736/37 minor work in the parish church was done | Bertoldshofen, where his father-in-law had already worked, | and in the Wolfgang Chapel in Dillingen in 1739/40 he is with | the version of the high altar, the Johann Nepomuk statue and | the gilding of the side altars in the Dillinger church | Franciscan Sisters entrusted; he takes the stately | Sum of 1,303 guilders. His main work are the Fres- | of the parish church in Dillingen, which is not connected to the | of Christoph Thomas Scheffler's creations, | but do credit to a master craftsman.

One has to wonder why Wolker did not do more | Has. However, he was only active as a master for eleven years, and | his entire work is with the works mentioned also | hardly exhausted. But to a workshop of reputation as it is | The Augsburg brother entertained, but he didn't make it. | If we ask about the reasons for this failure after the brisk start-up of 1734/35, then there are probably issues of will here and, in connection with this, domestic quarrels a. An entry | again entitles us to make this assumption in the Dillinger council minutes. Still on April 21, 1740 he | Matthias Wolker and his housewife seem amicable | the council and declare on an interest claim due to them | not wanting to do without. Not so six months later. Since | stands on November 10, 1740 the certified painter M. Re- | gina Wolkerin, supported by her spiritual brother An | ton Dionys Haffe in Pfaffenhausen and her brother-in-law dem | Painter Anton Dobler in Landsberg (also active in Mindelheim), | before the wise advice and complains of their dissolute | and her only menacing husband; he had "dealt with negligence | his profession and foundation of a beautiful home “dem | Spirits yield; they ask the council for remedies. Matthias | Wolker, also summoned, presents “those who are told to him dende Imputata ”and brings to his right- | production of his wife's lust for domination known throughout the city, the | I am to blame for all the domestic strife. The Council | finds guilt on both sides and binds both “one bes- | Seres Comportement ”. Whether the council admonition is bearing fruit we don't know.

Mrs. M. Regina was already two years later by her | Marriage cross exempt. Perhaps Wolker's early death was the | Brandy not innocent. The widow started the business | Year on independently. Married on November 26, 1743 | she the painter Vitus Felix Rigel (Riegl, Rigl) , who was probably already as a journeyman | served with her. She seems to have been more lucky with him | to have. Rigl was a hard-working and sought-after master who did it | (1764) could even dare to follow his workshop from Dillingen to | Augsburg to relocate. At that time, however, his wife was not | more alive. She died after her second husband | had given six children on June 14, 1761 in Dillingen. | FZ "

Matthäus Wolcker's house was at Klosterstrasse 13, but has been heavily changed today. It goes to Königstrasse and is now connected to a shop. Alfred Schröder wrote about this building in 1912: “Let us now talk about the | for a moment Turn off Hauptstraße and into Klosterstraße. The | Corner house on Klosterstrasse (No. 13, A 65), mineral water | Factory owner Ebner, is typical for the development of the houses | ser on the south side of Klosterstrasse. Until 1688 an | no house is taxed at all at this point, be it | that there was none here or that only a small | Annex building or back building to the main building on the | Koenigstrasse was present. But in 1688 it is said that | a new house is standing here, and this is now being converted into a | always taxed by its own owner. The house | may therefore claim a special interest, | because it belonged to artists for two generations, | namely successively the art and barrel painters Anton | Haffe (1710–1713), Matthias Wolker (1732–41, his | widow until 1743) and Felix Rigl (1743–1766), of whom | still considerable pictures, especially frescoes, in Dillingen | and are preserved abroad. "

Works

The Wolcker's works are not well known. At a very young age, at the age of 26, he received the Erbacher Castle commission for five oil paintings. Later he was a journeyman in Dillingen with his future father-in-law Anton Wenzeslaus Haffe, with whom he worked and whose daughter he married. Wolcker is likely to have an unknown share in Haffe's works. The ceiling frescos on the occasion of the baroque redesign of the Catholic parish church in Dillingen and the painting of the Catholic parish church of St. Michael in Bertoldshofen are likely to be his main works . In 1737, together with Johann Martin Zick, he frescoed the nave in the parish church of St. Johannes Baptist in Marktoberdorf-Leuterschach . His early death apparently prevented the creation of a major life's work.

• 1730: so-called “poultry dealer” at Erbach Castle , dated 1730
• 1730: Still life with poultry at Erbach Castle , inscribed "Matheus Wolcker 1730 den 5 May:"
• 1730: Still life with three people at Erbach Castle , inscribed "Matheus Wolcker 1730 on December 22nd:"
• 1730: Still life with poultry at Erbach Castle , inscribed ... 1730
• 1730: Altarpiece at Erbach Castle , inscribed ...
• 1734/35: he painted the ceiling frescoes on the occasion of the baroque redesign of the Catholic parish church “St. Peter ”in Dillingen on the Danube
• 1736/37: minor works in the Catholic parish church of St. Michael in Bertoldshofen
• 1736/37: minor works in the Wolfgang chapel in Dillingen on the Danube
• 1736/38: setting of the choir altar and gilding of two side altars in the newly built church of the Franciscan convent in Dillingen on the Danube
• 1741: Painting of the choir and nave in the parish church of Oberdießen

literature

• Anna Bauer-Wild et al. (Texts) and Wolf-Christian von der Mülbe (photos), Corpus of Baroque ceiling painting in Germany. Volume 1: Free State of Bavaria, Administrative Region Upper Bavaria. The districts of Landsberg am Lech, Starnberg, Weilheim-Schongau. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1976.
• Eduard von Paulus, and Eugen Gradmann, The art and antiquity monuments in the Kingdom of Württemberg. On behalf of the Royal Ministry of Churches and Schools ed. from ... inventory (4th volume). Donaukreis 1st volume: Biberach, Blaubeuren, Ehingen, Justingen authorities . Arranged by Julius Baum, Hans Klaiber and Bertold Pfeiffer. Eßlingen aN: Paul Neff Verlag (Max Schreiber), 1914.
• Marion Romberg: The world in the service of denominations: continental allegories in village churches in the area of ​​the duchy of Augsburg in the 18th century . Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017.
• Julius Schöttl, Johann Baptist Libigo, Joseph Anton Libigo, Stephan Luidl (Dillinger sculptors from the Baroque period). Yearbook of the Historical Association Dillingen Volume 49/50, 1936/38, pp. 207-251.
• Alfred Schröder: Vitus Felix Rigl, painter in Dillingen. In: Yearbook of the historical association Dillingen an der Donau. Volume 25, 1901, 147-150.
• Alfred Schröder: Contributions to the history of houses in Dillingen. In: Yearbook of the historical association Dillingen an der Donau. Volume 25, 1912, pp. 277-289.
• City of Schelklingen (Ed.), Schelklingen: History and life of a city. Edited by the city of Schelklingen on the occasion of the city's 750th anniversary . Ulm: Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1984.
• Wolcker, Matthias . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 36 : Wilhelmy-Zyzywi . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1947, p. 184-185 .
• Friedrich Zoepfl: The Dillinger painter Matthias Wolcker. In: Schwäbisches Volksblatt: Official Journal of the NSDAP and all authorities in the Dillingen district. NS-Gauverlag Schwaben, branch Dillingen ad Donau, Volume 10, Dillingen 1945, No. 41.

Web links

Commons : Matthias Wolcker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ City Archives Schelklingen A 118 Volume 1 Council minutes 1724–1730, fol. 99-100.
2. ^ Zoepfl 1945. A new short biography of Matthias Wolcker can be found in Romberg 2017, p. 258.
3. ^ Haffe, Anton Wenzelslaus . In: Ulrich Thieme , Fred. C. Willis (Ed.): General lexicon of visual artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 15 : Gresse – Hanselmann . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1922, p. 445 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
4. ^ Riegel, Vitus Felix . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 28 : Ramsden-Rosa . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1934, p. 345 .
5. ↑ Kind communication from city archivist Hermann Biber of March 23, 2015. According to his message, the city archive Dillingen has no archive material on Matthias Wolcker.
6. ↑ Schröder 1912, p. 285.
7. ↑ Printed in Stadt Schelklingen (Ed.) (1984), p. 387.
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e} By Paulus and Gradmann 1914: p. 530 (whole volume) and 74 (Oberamt Ehingen).
9. ^ Zoepfl 1945.
10. ↑ Schöttl 1936/38, p. 244, note 15.
11. ↑ Bauer-Wild u. von der Mülbe 1976, p. 167 f.