Michael Walther (sculptor)

Michael Walther (* around 1574 in Dresden , † 1624 ibid ) was a German sculptor of the Baroque .

Life

Michael Walther comes from a Silesian-Saxon family of artists . He was born as the fourth son of Christoph Walther II in Dresden. He is the older brother of Sebastian Walther and the younger brother of Andreas Walther III and Christoph Walther IV . He spent his childhood in Dresden. There he already worked in his parents' sculpture workshop at Terrassenstrasse 12. In 1594 he passed his sculpture examination and worked for master Giovanni Maria Nosseni in his workshop. Around 1595 he went on a journey to Italy with recommendations from Nosseni to Venice and Florence . Back in Dresden in 1599, he passed his master craftsman examination. Together with the sculptors Christoph Walther IV, Christoph Abraham Walther , Giovanni Maria Nosseni, Sebastian Walther, Jacob Bagenin, Zacharias Berholdt and Hans Stilling , he founded a sculpture guild in Dresden in 1612. Of his works, only the altar of the church in Borna (near Oschatz) has been preserved. He died in Dresden in 1624 and was buried in the Walther family arch in the Frauenkirchhof .

Works (selection)

Church in Borna near Oschatz, altar

• 1599 to 1605: sandstone altar, columns and tablets made of marble, the column base made of serpentine in the church in Borna near Oschatz .
• 1605: Relief Annunciation in the church in Borna near Oschatz.
• 1599: Design for an altar for the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig .
• 1606 to 1606: Collaboration on the Nossenialtar for the Sophienkirche Dresden .
• 1608 to 1610: sculptural jewelry and individual sandstone figures for the Sophienkirche Dresden.
• 1619: Four figures of German emperors and Saxon princes on the upper floor of the pleasure house on the maiden bastion of Brühl's terrace .

literature

• Hermann Arthur Lier :  Walther . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 92-95.
• Ernst Sigismund : Walther, Michael . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 35 : Libra-Wilhelmson . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1942, p. 116-118 .
• Walter Hentschel : Dresden sculptors of the 16th and 17th centuries, Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nachhaben, Weimar 1966, pp. 68, 73, 78, 105, 139, 142, 143.

Web links

• Church in Borna