Tobias Querfurt

Tobias Querfurt the Elder (* around 1660; † September 13, 1734 in Wolfenbüttel ) was a German painter, etcher and iron cutter. He was court painter to Dukes Rudolf August and Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig and the first inspector of the princely collection of paintings in Salzdahlum Palace .

Life

Querfurt's origin is unknown. It can be traced for the first time in 1674 in Salzdahlum, where Duke Anton Ulrich had his summer residence built between 1688 and 1694. In 1686 Querfurt received a salary . His tasks initially included drawing lessons at the Knights' Academy in Wolfenbüttel, founded in 1687, as well as design and engraving work for the ducal mint workshop.

Princely court painter 1691 to 1714

In 1691 he married the daughter of his Hamburg painter colleague Joachim Luhn (1640–1717). Together with him and the painter and set designer Johann Oswald Harms , Querfurt created a large number of wall and ceiling paintings in the palace and palace church in Salzdahlum between 1689 and 1697. In the Parnass Grotto in the palace garden, he painted a ceiling painting with the glorification of the Principality of Braunschweig . Eighteen portraits in the Redoutensaal of Wolfenbüttel Castle testify to his work as a portraitist for the Wolfenbütteler Hofgesellschaft, but these have not been preserved. In 1691 he was involved in work on the new Braunschweig Opera House on Hagenmarkt . Since 1698, as the successor to JO Harms, he was also responsible for the theater decorations in the duchy. On behalf of Duke Anton Ulrich, Querfurt expanded the Salzdahlum painting collection through purchases. In 1686 he was in Italy with Duke Ludwig Rudolf to buy paintings there. Querfurt was the first in the series of gallery inspectors in Salzdahlum, which ended in 1807 with Anton Weitsch . In 1710 he published a "Kurtze Description of the Princely Pleasure Palace Salzdahlum", which also contains view and floor plans.

Dismissal and change of residence

Shortly after Duke Anton Ulrich, Querfurt also converted to Catholicism around 1710, which ultimately led to his dismissal in 1714 by the new anti-Catholic ruler August Wilhelm . He moved into a ducal until 1734/1735 grace money , but moved in 1715 to the Catholic Corvey . In 1719/1720 and 1730 he stayed in Hamburg and in 1724 and 1727 in Hildesheim . Querfurt lived in Wolfenbüttel again from 1733, where he died in 1734. He was buried in the Catholic monastery church in nearby Dorstadt .

His sons August (1696–1761), Johann Hermann and Tobias Querfurt the Elder. J. were also painters. His pupil was the later Prussian court painter Johann Friedrich Wentzel (1670–1729).

Works (selection)

Most of his Salzdahlum works have not survived; the castle was demolished in 1813.

• Ceiling fresco "Triumph of the Welfenhaus over the city of Braunschweig" in the Duke's audience room in Wolfenbüttel Castle, 1690 (preserved)
• Painting "Golgatha", Wolfenbüttel Castle Chapel, 1697 (preserved)
• Paintings on the " Castrum doloris ", the mourning scaffolding, of the Duchess Elisabeth Juliane, who died in 1704
• Wall and ceiling frescoes in the imperial hall of the Corvey Monastery (attribution), 1704 (preserved)
• Ceiling painting in the ballroom of the manor house in Achim , around 1710 (preserved)
• Painting of the Catholic Church of St. Nicolai in Braunschweig, 1710 to 1712 (destroyed)
• Frescoes in the Blankenburg Palace Chapel , 1714 (whitewashed today)
• Ceiling painting in the rotunda of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel (destroyed)
• Two portraits of Duke Anton Ulrich, today in the Duke Anton Ulrich Museum

literature

• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 8th to 18th centuries , pp. 569-570, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 .
• Museum in Wolfenbüttel Castle and the building history department of the TU Braunschweig (ed.): Hermann Korb and his time - Baroque building in the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-51-3 .