Franz Johann Joseph Bock

Franz Bock (full name Franz Johann Joseph Bock, May 3, 1823 in Burtscheid, † April 30, 1899 in Aachen ) was a German Catholic priest ( Canon ) and art historian.

Life and work

The son of Burtscheider lifeguard Franz Joseph Bock and the prematurely deceased Agnes Dotru studied after the visit of Aachen Kaiser -Karls -Gymnasium from 1846 to 1849 Theology at the University of Bonn. From October 1849 Bock visited the Cologne Seminary and was ordained a priest a year later. Then the parish of St. Dionysius in Krefeld took him as the fifth Kaplan. During this time he worked in addition to fulfilling his ecclesiastical duties already as a promoter of sacred art and made in 1852 for the first time as a curator of a nationally acclaimed exhibition of important medieval vestments, and as the founder of an art weaving for church silks according to medieval models attention. After his transfer in 1854 to St. Alban in Cologne Bock was appointed in 1855 in addition to Kuratpriester and curator at the newly opened Archiepiscopal Diocesan Museum of Christian ancient art. With a grant from the Ministry of Commerce of the Prussian Rhine province, he undertook the meantime a two-year art history study tour of several countries in Europe. After his return he used intensive contacts with like-minded connoisseurs and patrons such as the Archbishop of Cologne John of Scourge, the Bishop of Munster Johann Georg Müller, Prince Carl Anton of Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen, as well as to families of the Rhenish and Westphalian nobility and local artisans such as the sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg. He also was just as his fellow priests Ernst Franz August Münzenberger in Frankfurt, Friedrich Schneider in Mainz and Cologne Alexander Schnütgen in one of the relevant promoters of reform efforts for church crafts in the Archdiocese of Cologne.

One focus of his interest was the sacred textile art and Bock summarized his research finally in the three-volume and highly acclaimed work: " The history of the liturgical vestments of the Middle Ages " along which, the first scientific study of the origin and development of ecclesiastical vestments with regard to tissue color, design, cut and ritual significance represented and thus opened a new branch of archeology. He also created new patterns and design variations that had to turn of the century inventory. New study trips, now chiefly to Syria, Egypt and Palestine, joined them. Among his souvenirs included, among other things, significant collections of textile fragments, Coptic robes, medieval goldsmith, glasses and enamels.

Beginning in 1862 moved Bock to Aachen, where he was appointed honorary canon and a month later, appointed on June 24, 1862 July 10, honorary canon of the Cathedral of Aachen and in 1868 for Numerarkanonikus the Collegiate. Even in his Aachener time he worked intensively on the sacred art and taught, for example, the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus, who ran a world-renowned monastery workshop for vestments in the design of patterns and machining techniques age chasubles and gave them extensive ecclesiastical orders. He also promoted through the mediation of work orders his multiple contacts with church dignitaries local artisans such as the sculptor Wilhelm Brodmüller, Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg and Gottfried Götting and the pin goldsmith Martin Vogeno, Reinhold Vasters or August Witte, who on behalf Capricorn for the gold reliefs of the Pala d ' oro known altarpiece (c. 1000 to 1020 ) in the Aachen Cathedral was make a magnificent Romanesque Revival enamel frame. In 1871, this repurposed by the German Emperor Wilhelm I as the founder of the panel with a new inscription bar to the monument of the Hohenzollern emperor. Furthermore Bock in 1892 was responsible for the Neuausmalung in the baroque church of St. John Baptist in Burtscheid and 1895/96 for restoration jobs on Romanesque Revival Sandalenreliquiar the Salvator Church in Prüm.

In addition, he has organized numerous art exhibitions and over again and was respected guest and speaker at international conferences. He also wrote numerous and sometimes very large publications, especially to hitherto little subjects covered. This resulted in seven years of work, and on behalf of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, for example, his work " The jewels of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", which with numerous color lithographs, this mainly supported by the painter and lithographer Joseph of Fiihrich from Vienna, was one of the most gorgeous wallet works of the 19th century. In addition, include a first fully illustrated work on the Cologne church treasures, " The Holy Cologne ", as well as a summary of " The medieval art treasures and relics to Maestricht " ' to his major works.

Although in his later years slowed his creativity, Bock tried, unsuccessfully, not to install a first Arts and Crafts School in Aachen. Also, a planned relocation to Italy and the sale of his entire extant collection now did not come off. Having been in previous years, parts of his collection, among others, the Royal Prussian Kunstkammer, today's Museum of Decorative Arts Berlin, at the Musée de Cluny in Paris, at the Aachen Suermondt Ludwig Museum and the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum, was made ​​in London, he eventually bequeathed to him remaining inventory of the city of Aachen. On April 30, 1899 Franz Johann Joseph Bock died after pneumonia and was buried in the Campo Santo at the West Cemetery II in Aachen in a gestiftetem of the city honor grave.

Writings (selection )

• The goldsmith's art at the height of its technical and aesthetic training, plastically detected in a collection of original casts of the finest ecclesiastical vessels and implements from the 10th - 16th Century, with a descriptive text and a Preface by Franz Bock, Cologne 1855;
• Canopy altars of St. Stephen in Vienna and the Tyn Church in Prague; or how it is to keep up with the Neubaue of altars, In: Organ of Christian Art, 7 ( 1857), No. 21, 241-243 and No. 22, 255-258; ? The jewels of healing. the Holy Roman Empire. In: Mittheilungen the imperial. royal. Central Commission for the Study and Conservation of monuments. Volume 2, 1857