Johann Wilhelm Beyer
Johann Christian Wilhelm Beyer (* December 27, 1725 in Gotha, † March 23, 1796 in Hietzing ), was a German sculptor, porcelain artist, painter and garden designer. In encyclopaedias of the 19th century it appears under different names. Beyer has the largest share of the design of the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace with statues, which is considered his major work.
Life
Beyer retired early from Gotha to Stuttgart because his father, the princely Saxon court gardener Johann Nicolaus Beyer, entered the service of Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg, and was there " garden - engineer ".
Between 1748 and 1751 Beyer held on at the request of his employer in Paris to study architecture and painting. In Rome he began immediately after studying the painting continues, but turned to sculpture after he had participated in excavations of ancient statues ( encounters with Abbate Vineti, the papal antiquary and superintendent of Roman antiquities, and Winckelmann ).
After returning to Stuttgart in 1759 Beyer worked as the Duke of Württemberg court painter to 1767 and as a model master of porcelain Ludwigsburg, where he helped with his work to rapid flowering. Also in 1759 he put the German princes against his plan to establish a German art academy in Rome.
After Beyer was excreted from the ducal service in February 1767 he went to Vienna. Already in 1768 he was a member of k.k. Academy, in 1769 employed at court and in 1770 kk Court painter, statuarius (sculptor ) and Chamber architect. Beyer's reputation as an artist is, however, compared to his need, the very unpopular it together with regular undercutting the competition, with fellow artists and staff.
He married in 1771 a native of Lorraine painter Gabriele Bertrand, daughter of Captain's Castle of Schönbrunn, an art teacher of Archduchess Marie Caroline and Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Maria Theresa, and one of the few female members of the Academy. In 1778 he bought a house in Hietzing, later also adjacent properties.
In 1779 he published his two-volume copper engraving plant in Austria oddities image and architecture on [ ... ], the detailed explanations with references to the mythological sources of mythology ( Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch and contemporary encyclopedias ) to the written by him drafts contained ( and then unknown error these sources contains ). After completion of the work for Palace and after the death of his patroness Maria Theresa, in 1780, he went back to the garden design. In 1784 he produced from plants to German garden and landscape design, he argues for a middle ground between the English and French garden design.
Beyers marriage to Gabriele Bertrand was divorced in 1785. In the same year he wrote the first known written a draft regulation of the Vienna River.
Refinement of the Schönbrunn Garden
His most important work was a job that Maria Theresa issued in May in 1773. Within three years 32 (36? ) Statues along with a number of vases of white marble against a sum of 1000 florins per unit, plus additional costs to produce. As is apparent from the invoices, was meant " per character", for statues with two or three figures several times was almost settled.
Beyer had received this order, after it had been able to locate in the area around Sterzing high quality marble from Carrara tantamount to, and beyond, to find a cheap transport option of fitting ( the desire to Schönbrunn garden ground floor with marble sculptures, was the absence of been low-cost high-quality material is not realized earlier).
In the summer of 1773 Beyer was with a group of 15 sculptors at Sterzing go to win the blanks. After his designs, the figures were roughly hewn on site to reduce the weight for transport. The blocks were placed in winter on sledges up to the Brenner road, where Tyrolean carters they transported cheaply to Hall. From thence, which also affordable water via the Inn and Danube was possible.
In Schönbrunn he had the Winter Riding School (now wagons ) as a studio. He worked there not technically, but perceived organizational and creative tasks. From the price of the statues of the sculptor was exporting about half, the rest was retained for design and effort. Were allowed to sign their work never Beyers employees, which is why they are known in the majority of cases merely as work Beyers. See the main article sculptures and statues to Schönbrunn Palace.
Given the high quality and cheapest material the crown with the sculptures of the Triumphal Arch Innsbruck, Johann Baptist Hagenauer had initially created out of wood and stucco, implemented by Balthasar Ferdinand Moll in marble. Also, to the Elector of Bavaria in 1773 marble is for thirteen statues that were erected in the Nymphenburg Palace. As of March 21, 1775 the statues were erected, presumably at the corners of the floor fields, such as in the design for the Great Parterre ( engraving by Carl Schütz, 1772) shown. Today's package came later. Beyer had specially constructed a machine for putting up.
Four groups of figures for the planned four wells of the Great Parterre originated in 1776 (two in Beyers studio, one at Hagenauer, one at Zauner ), but had to be housed elsewhere because of the new disposition in 1777: those of Beyer's studio in the ruins and in the Obelisk Fountain the other two in the pit of the main courtyard.
Beyers last great design for Schönbrunn were the figures for the 1780 completed shortly before Maria Theresa's death Neptune Fountain.
Models
Dernjač and Schedler have in Beyers oddities [ ... ] textual and conceptual connections according to:
- Bernard de Montfaucon: L' Antiquité expliquée et representée s figures. 1739
- Joachim von Sandrart: Teutsche Academy of noble building, image and painting arts. 1675-1679
- Simon Thomassin: Recueil des Figures, Groupes, Thermes, Fontaines, Vases, Statues Ornaments et autres de Versailles [ ... ]. Paris, 1694, German: Augsburg 1710.
Honors, Memberships
- Founding member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, 1753; Professor ( painting class ).
- Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, in 1760.
- Accademia di San Luca, 1763rd
- Member of k.k. Engraver Academy in 1768, from the Association for the later Academy of Fine Arts, 1772, academic council.
- Academy of St. Petersburg, 1771st
Writings
- Austria's curiosities, the image and architecture on. Vienna, 1779.
- Statues and fountains in the Kais. - Royal. Gardens at Schönbrunn, marble carved by Wilhelm Beyer, kk Statuarius and council of k.k. Academy [ ... ] Vienna in 1779 ( several editions, to the finished upon completion of the work in 1780 24 statues are the names of the performers at Beyer ).
- The new muse and the national gardens. Vienna 1784th