Paul Decker

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Representation of a royal "LustHaus"

Paul Decker , also Paulus Decker, the Elder (born December 27, 1677 in Nuremberg , † November 18, 1713 in Bayreuth ) was a copperplate engraver , master builder and inventor of ideal Baroque architecture.

Life

In 1695 Decker began training as a copper engraver at the Nuremberg Academy for Painters . His teacher there was the astronomer and copper engraver Georg Christoph Eimmart . After completing his apprenticeship, Decker went to Berlin in 1699, where he acquired extensive specialist knowledge in the field of architecture as a student of Andreas Schlüter and in his vicinity. From 1707 he worked at the court of the Duchy of Palatinate-Sulzbach and for the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth under the name "architectus" as a builder. He died at the age of approximately 36 years. Nothing has come down to us about his structures, neither the buildings themselves nor reliable records.

plant

Deckers abiding life performance was the large-scale and comprehensive scale engraving result Princely builder / or Architectura Civilis, How Big princes and nobles palaces with their farms / / caves / orangeries / and other buildings associated justly and to apply auszuzieren according to today's kind .... were planned five volumes in which all aspects of the non-religious architecture of his time should be dealt with. The first part was actually published with 59 copperplate engravings (1711), an appendix with 40 copperplate engravings (1713) and a second part with 32 copperplate engravings (1716), which his publisher had compiled posthumously from drawings he left behind. The images achieve a high artistic quality. The first part includes the overall design of a royal palace, including the primary and elevations , the space equipment and the design of the gardens. In the second, incomplete part, a royal palace is depicted according to the same concept. The 59 pictures in the first part were not only drawn by Decker, but also engraved. A total of 17 engravers were involved in the other panels.

The elaborate work in landscape format 57 × 41.5 cm contains almost no explanatory texts. The drafts were never actually intended to be executed, but provided ideal images of the respective motifs. Decker served the building passion of German rulers, which was widespread in the first half of the 18th century. In his architectural compositions he incorporated ideas from famous earlier and contemporary architects such as Claude Perrault (1613–1688) and Francois Blondel (approx. 1618–1688) from France, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), Francesco Borromini (1599–1667) and Andrea Pozzo (1642–1709) from Italy and Andreas Schlüter (approx. 1660–1714) and Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723) from Germany. Decker's work, in turn, often served later architects as inspiration and template for their own work.

Decker was not only concerned with architecture, but also with the military subject. A series of copper engravings is exhibited in the Vienna Army History Museum, for example , showing the war acts of Prince Eugene of Savoy in Italy , southern Germany and the Spanish Netherlands during the War of the Spanish Succession . Decker edited this series together with the Augsburg publisher Jeremias Wolff .

gallery

  • "Princely builder ..", title page

  • Audience hall with a princely throne

  • Draft of a ceiling painting

  • Alley in a "pleasure garden"

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Text from the University Library of the TU Vienna on Paul Decker and his work
  2. ↑ Johann Christoph Allmayer-Beck : The Army History Museum Vienna. Hall II - The 18th Century to 1790 . Kiesel Verlag, Salzburg 1983, ISBN 3-7023-4012-2 , p. 24

Web links

Commons : Paul Decker  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Decker, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engraver, master builder and inventor of ideal baroque architecture
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1677
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1713
Place of death Bayreuth