Matthäus Günther

Matthew ( also: Matthew ) Günther ( born September 7, 1705 Peißenberg, district Tritschenkreut (then Tritschengreith ); † September 30, 1788 in Haid at Wessobrunn ) was a Bavarian painter and graphic artist of the Baroque and Rococo era.

Life

Matthäus Günther was the first of twelve children of peasants Jacob Gunther and Maria née Place Locher (also Lengelacher ) in Tritschenkreuth, currently the world community Peißenberg, to the world, in a time in which the Electorate of Bavaria suffered from imperial- Austrian occupation. The fateful chain of events culminating in the murder Sendlinger Christmas 1705 and the massacre at Mountain Handl at Aidenbachstraße on January 8, 1706.

Probably met Günther in the school at the Benedictine Wessobrunn some of early times up to 300 artists working there and showed interest in painting. In Wessobrunn, the location of the first text document received in writing in German language, Wessobrunner prayer, Wessobrunner school worked together in their distinctive style and known throughout Europe in the Baroque and Rococo builders, fresco painters and plasterers. It is not known who first discovered the artistic potential of the young Matthew and promoted, at least he took over, although firstborn and thus actually privileged, not the family farm, but graduated from 1721 to 1723 in the near Murnau trained as a painter at Simon Bernhardt and worked from 1723 to 1728 in Munich as a journeyman by Cosmas Damian Asam, the older of the famous Asam brothers.

In the early 18th century, Munich, Innsbruck, Konstanz and Ulm had developed in the field of fresco painting to a strong competition for the earlier leading free imperial city of Augsburg in southern Germany and the Alpine region. The order situation of the Augsburg workshop was therefore relatively poor until the in Dusseldorf has become known young painter Johann Georg Bergmüller from Mindelheim settled there and soon won success and fame as a painter of altarpieces, fresco painter and draftsman of engravings. He was appointed head of the Augsburg Art Academy, which grew strongly under him.

Günther moved to the journeyman years at Asam also to Augsburg and acquired in 1731 by marriage of the painter F. Mack widow called the master justice, yet rooted in the medieval legal system and was required to be deemed to have been coated artist Augsburg citizen with full rights. 1740 Günther acquired the estate of Johann Evangelist Holzer with numerous oil sketches.

1761 Günther widowed and married in 1763 the twenty-two year old widow of his friend Johann Georg Wessobrunner Üblhör (also: Ybelherr ), who had acquired a reputation as a plasterer in Augsburg. In the same year Matthew Guenther could succeed mountain Müller as head of the Augsburg Catholic Art Academy because of its high reputation.

From about 1770 the artistic reputation of Augsburg began to fade again. Some well-known artists died and there was a lack of successors. The associated with the decline of production depletion also led to the migration of many artists. The city lacked the funds to continue keeping up with emerging cities such as Munich, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Berlin or Vienna can step failed attempts to revive the art business. Disappointed difference Günther 1784 from office of the Director of the Academy and retired to the village Haid at Wessobrunn, where he passed away four years later.

Matthäus Günther younger brother Joachim Günther (1720-1789) was court sculptor to Bruchsal, in the Bishopric of Speyer.

Work

In about 55 years of creation Günther coined until 1787, the Rococo paintings in the southern German - Bavarian area up to Württemberg, Franconia and Tyrol, where he endowed 40 churches. The detected oeuvre includes about 70 frescoes and panel paintings 25. Unsecured, but probably, is his collaboration 1723/24 at the facilities of, also known as a baroque jewel Tyrol Innsbruck Cathedral as a journeyman of the older Asam.

His first major work was the only verantwortetes 1732 created ceiling fresco in the Parish Church of Druisheim far from Donauwörth. In 1740 he painted the ceiling fresco in the vestibule of the monastery Neustift, municipality Varna near Brixen, on which the foundation of the monastery is shown, as well as the frescoes in the nave of the abbey church, which is regarded by the art historian George scrap most beautiful Baroque church of South Tyrol. Here Günther already proved to be a master of illusionistic painting, such as the apparent curvatures shown are impressive. There is no mistaking the influence of the Venetian master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, whom he had met in Würzburg, where Günther endowed the Käppele, while at the same time the famous Tiepolo ceiling painting created in the stairwell of the Episcopal Wurzburg Residence.

Is particularly evident the influence of the Venetian in Günther's late works such as the 1779 been painted village church of Grins in Tyrol's Inn Valley, where Günther in tiepoloähnlicher scenery allegorical motifs of the personified Church can occur, which offers the four then-known continents refuge. In Augsburg itself, there are only a few works of Gunther's hand, including in the Anthony Chapel and in the congregation hall of the former Jesuit College of St. Salvator, the so-called Little Golden Hall, with its ceiling fresco under the Isaiah motto " Ecce virgo concipiet " (based on Isaiah chapter 7, since 2005, after several years of renovation reopened ). In the tripartite fresco Mary joins as a mediator the earthly plane ( threatened by enemies city of Jerusalem with its decision weak king Ahaz ) with the heavenly Trinity, which appears in a bright circle of light. Marian scenes from the " Litany of Loreto " in the four Eckkartuschen the room round off the ceiling fresco.

Gunther's life-long connection with Wessobrunn shows on the one hand in friendship with Übelhör, on the other hand, in close cooperation with the plasterers Francis Xavier and Michael Feichtmayr with which Günther often worked in Tyrol.

Works (selection)

Undated works:

• Church of Our Lady in Aich Peißenberg
• Parish Church of St. Quirinus, Benedictine Monastery Tegernsee,
• Altar facilities of St. Georgen in Diessen
• Fresco in the library of the monastery Fuerstenzell in Passau, Lower Bavaria ( no longer available)
• Ceiling painting in Muensterschwarzach in Lower Franconia
• Self-portrait and paintings of his wife in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich
• Paintings in the museums in Schwerin and Weimar
• Three oil paintings and six drawings in the Municipal Art Collections Augsburg