Johann Melchior Kambly

Johann Melchior Kambly, also Kambli or Camply ( born January 9 or January 16, 1718 in Zurich, † April 12, 1782 or 1783 in Potsdam) was a Swiss decorative rates sculptor, bronze founder and cabinetmaker.

Life

Johann Melchior Kambly came from an old board capable of Zurich, Switzerland and was the son of the art locksmith and watchmaker Heinrich Kambly (1674-1727) from his second marriage to Anna (1684-1754), the daughter of the Master Builder of the Masons' Guild Hans Jakob Schärer from Schaffhausen. He received a handicraft training in Schaffhausen with his uncle, the plasterer and sculptor Johann Jakob Schärer (1676-1746), followed by training in the wood sculptor Johann Konrad Speissegger and the goldsmith Johann Konrad Schalch ( 1742-1819 ). After the apprenticeship Kambly left Switzerland probably 1744/45, to follow the call of Frederick II at the Prussian court. King of Prussia promoted to embellish the palaces and royal residences in Berlin and Potsdam for artists and artisans, for that had existed in the reign of the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm I. by its pragmatically oriented architecture and equipment not required. Since most people were looking for new operating outside Brandenburg, Frederick II had access to only a few local shops.

Kamblys activity in Potsdam is occupied with a document of May 1745 in which he set eight capitals of Sanssouci Palace in accounting for the first time. Among the prestigious artisans, he established himself in Potsdam within a few years. It came to him, not least the all-round education benefit, which enabled him to work with different materials and techniques. He was involved in the artistic design of many buildings. After spending six years in Prussia, he asked the king for permission not yet in a local factory land of bronze Dorée [ gilded bronze ] work there to create, approved it on 16 February 1752. Although Kambly remained until his death in Prussia and exclusively in the Potsdam area worked, he left in 1750 to renew in Switzerland 's membership in his father's blacksmith's guild and also in 1772 for himself and his sons, the Zurich citizenship. After his death in 1783, born in Potsdam in 1750 son of Heinrich Friedrich took over the workshop of his father. 1995 awarded him the capital of Brandenburg in the residential area Kirchsteigfeld with the Kamblystraße.

Johann Melchior Kambly married in 1744 in Berlin Elisabeth Brisko (1723 - after 1785 ) from Great Beautiful Beck, daughter of the estate and sheep farmer on the Schorfheide Peter bisko. Of his thirteen children were two sons in his father's footsteps. In addition to his successor in Potsdam, Heinrich Friedrich, also learned the elder, was born in 1745 Melchior an artistic profession and worked as a sculptor in Zurich, where Kamblys brother Sixtus ( 1706-1768 ) worked as a blacksmith.

Services

After the entry into Prussian service Johann Melchior Kambly initially worked with the architectural decoration of the houses built between 1745-1747 Sanssouci Palace, almost the same time but also in redesigning the apartment of the king, called Frederick apartment, in the palace of Potsdam as well as outbuildings and garden pavilion in Sanssouci Park and built between 1763 to 1770 guests Castle new Palace on the western border of the park. Also in the city of Potsdam, he contributed to the sculptural decorations of some buildings. His last documented work was carried out in 1781 in the riding and the drill hall - the so-called "Long Stall" - where he worked on the architectural sculptures at the front building.

Johann Melchior Kambly made ​​to sculptures mainly ornamental architectural decorations such as columns and pilaster capitals, Attica vases and window decorations. He has also received orders to cooperate in the design of the palace interiors and the ornate decoration of dressers, desks, cabinets, grandfather clocks, music stands, picture frames and mirror frames. In the furniture art he specialized in tortoiseshell veneer in the art of André -Charles Boulle, only without inserted Metallmarketerie, and decorated them with engraved fittings and fully three-dimensional character performances from fire-gilded or silvered bronze, which he had make in his workshop. Another specialty was its fine stone work, especially encrustations in the type of Florentine pietra dura mosaics, similar to a Holzmarketerie be laid out flat stone plates.

Many of his works were written in collaboration with other artists who came to Prussia, as the brothers Johann Michael Hoppe main and Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt and a native of Bayreuth brothers Johann Friedrich Spindler and Heinrich Wilhelm Spindler, so that an accurate assignment of the individual works often only by old documents can be detected. Kambly was alongside these fellow artists one of the most important in the development of the " Frederician Rococo " and stood by his craftsmanship of contemporary French furniture art in every way. From his work, not a few have been destroyed as a result of the Second World War or listed as missing. Proven Kambly are still 15 pieces of furniture in the Sanssouci Palace, the New Palace, the New Chambers and the Chinese house. You are veneered in tortoiseshell or cedar wood and elaborately decorated with gold or silver plated bronze.

Works (selection)

• Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam: Various stone carvings on the outer buildings, 1745-1747
• Marble Hall: pilasters and capitals, 1747
• Audience or Dining Room: Five-section of jasper vases set with gilded bronze ornaments to 1770-1773 (originally in the New Chambers, since 1782 in the Castle )
• Various pieces of furniture. Just in are some picture and mirror frames, a copy of a Parisian cabinet documents from cedar wood with gilded bronze, in 1749, and a music stand with tortoiseshell veneer, mother of pearl and ivory inlays and gilt bronze fittings, 1767

• New Palace Various stone carvings, 1763-1769
• Carved ornaments in writing cabinet Frederick II
• Gold-plated column and pilaster capitals, 1766
• Various pieces of furniture. Still available are two grandfather clocks, 1763; Desk, corner cabinet, three dressers (see Three Graces chest of drawers), 1763-1769; Frame with attachment for a Florentine mosaic cabinet, 1768-1770; Desk, 1765-1770

• New Chambers A part of the wood sculpture, 1771-1775
• Wall and floor work Jaspissaal, 1771-1775

• Chinese House 12 Palm trees in gilded sandstone, 1754/56
• Grandfather clock

• Park Sanssouci Participation in the marble colonnade in Rehgarten, 1751-1762 (1797 aborted)
• Collaboration on 12 marble vases on the wall putti in the eastern part of the park, according to plans by Johann Wilhelm Meil ( 1733-1805 ), 1764-1766
• Various stone carvings at the Belvedere on the Klaus Berg, 1770-1772

• Potsdam City Palace (destroyed) Gold-plated column and pilaster capitals, 1749
• Gold plated grid of flags stairs, 1750
• Decorations in the dining room " Bronze Hall"
• A part of the equipment for the " creative Gotsche Room ", later " Oranische chambers ", 1756
• Various pieces of furniture. Still get is a desktop 1756 and a music stand, 1767 (both pieces today in the New Palace ) and a corner cupboard, 1756 (now New Chambers )

• Potsdam Two obelisks at the New Town Gate in collaboration with Benjamin Giese to a design by Georg Wenceslaus von Knobelsdorff, 1753 ( destroyed gate in April 1945, only an obelisk receive )
• Employees on the facade and arcades in 1795 spent church St. Nikolai, 1753
• Employees at the Obelisk at the Old Market, 1753
• Employees on the facade beautification of the Potsdam Homes Breite Straße 3/4, 1751 and Castle Road 7, 1754
• Employees at the architectural decoration of the "Long Stalls ", 1781