Wessobrunn school
Wessobrunn School describes a large number of artisans and artists (mostly plasterers ) who were trained in the workshops of the Benedictine Abbey of Wessobrunn in Upper Bavaria from the end of the 17th century . At times, up to 300 people were employed there. More than 600 of these plasterers, builders and copper engravers are known by name. In the 18th century, the Wessobrunners had a decisive influence on the art of stucco in southern Germany, Tyrol and Switzerland and at times dominated it.
The term Wessobrunn School was first coined in 1888 by the art historians Gustav von Bezold and Georg Hager . The builders and plasterers Caspar Feichtmayr (* 1639–1704 [?]) And Johann Schmuzer (1642–1701) are considered to be the founders .
Representative
The most important representatives are the brothers Johann Baptist and Dominikus Zimmermann , the Schmuzer , who have worked for several generations, and the Feichtmayr / Feuchtmayer family . Some Wessobrunners also worked as builders, such as Johann and Joseph Schmuzer or Dominikus Zimmermann. Other important families were the Finsterwalder with Ignaz Finsterwalder , Gigl , Merck, Rauch, Schaidauf, Übelher with Johann Georg Üblhör and Zöpf with Thassilo Zöpf .
Development of the plastering trade
The stucco technique was used as early as 7000 BC. Applied and flourished in Renaissance Italy. In Germany she first appeared in the Landshut residence around 1545. When Michael Wening mentioned in his work “Historico-Topographica Descriptio” (1st part) in 1701 that the inhabitants of the villages of Gaispoint and Haid, which belong to the Wessobrunn monastery, mainly worked as plasterers and bricklayers, this implies a tradition that goes back a long way.
In Bavaria, at the end of the 16th century, local masons and stonemasons formed an alliance with Italian plasterers. In the 17th century, the most important stucco center in what was then Europe developed in Wessobrunn, which in the 18th century was assigned the most important tasks not only in southern Germany, but also in France, Poland, Hungary and Russia. The Italian competition couldn't keep up.
The highlight of this decorative art was the pilgrimage church Wies (1744 ff.) , Built and stuccoed by Domenikus Zimmermann and frescoed by his brother Johann Baptist . In this building, even architectural elements became an ornament.
The arcade arches in the choir, for example, are nothing more than monumental, openwork rocaille cartouches. However, only Dominikus Zimmermann took the step towards this uncompromising transfer of rocaille to architecture.
From around 1750 the building activity generally subsided; most of the great rococo and pilgrimage churches were completed. When in Bavaria in 1770 plastic stucco was abandoned and a regulation called for more sobriety and objectivity, the Wessobrunners were in a sense deprived of their right to exist. Even if there was another early classicist wave of construction between 1775 and 1790, the number of stucco artists fell. The "Society of Stuccators", founded in 1783, still had 68 members, compared to 27 in 1798 and only nine in 1864.
The charisma of the Wessobrunn plasterers can be observed in numerous European countries, especially in neighboring western Austria . Wessobrunn masters even worked in the distant Neuzelle monastery in Protestant-dominated Brandenburg.
Famous works
literature
- Hugo Schnell , Uta Schedler: Lexicon of Wessobrunn artists and craftsmen . Schnell and Steiner, Munich and Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7954-0222-0 .
- Johannes Goldner among others: Wessobrunner stucco school . Pannonia, Freilassing 1992, ISBN 3-7897-0209-9 .
- Hans Rohrmann: The Wessobrunners of the 17th century. The artists and craftsmen with special consideration of the Schmuzer family . EOS, St. Ottilien 1999, ISBN 3-8306-7015-X .
- Peter Dörfler . The Wessobrunners. A novel about a German artist village. Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1957 (1st edition: 1941).
Fonts
- Harriet Brinkmöller-Gandlau: carpenter, master builder and stucco worker family in Wessobrunn. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 486-489.
