Georg Rafael Donner

Georg Raphael Donner ( born May 24, 1693 Essling (now Vienna), † February 15, 1741 in Vienna ) was an Austrian sculptor. Along side Balthasar Permoser as the most important Central European sculptor of his time. The middle name Raphael (hence the spelling of Raphael Donner ) lay down thunder in admiration for the Italian painter Raphael and Roman antiquity.

Life and work

Coming from a carpenter family, thunder was originally trained as a goldsmith. To 1707, he accepted a sculptor teaching at Giovanni Giuliani, who allowed him access to the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, which was a key artistic influence. To the astonishment of contemporaries was the fact that he could regain his championship without study trip to Italy. Secured is a stay in Munich for 1710. It is believed that he was then appropriated the technology of the lead cast.

A Mercury with Cupid lead was 1725/26. This can be seen in the Abbey Museum Klosterneuburg. Model for this work could be the Mercury of François Duquesnoy, which is kept in the Lichtenstein collection. This figure lost in the inventory of 1658 Mercury their identity, if this is the time of role models was also the case is unclear. The model shows more equal view pages while the Mercury has only a view page with Cupid Donner. Another possible model is the Mercury fountain of Adriaen de Vries in Dresden, which he may have seen during his visit at Balthasar Permoser. Further possible is the knowledge of this well by an engraving by Wolfgang Kilian.

After minor work in the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg, he excited the first time in 1729 on regional for his work on the altars of the Elomosynariuskapelle in Pressburg attention. Its antique-style ( " classical " ) trend occurs for the first time in the foreground. In Bratislava, at the high altar of the cathedral Martin, is also his equestrian statue of St. Martin of circa 1735. All these jobs are mainly due to the Prince Primate of Hungary, Count Imre Esterházy.

To 1734 he develops his Apotheosis of Emperor Charles VI. , Which is situated in the Belvedere in Vienna. The emperor is shown as a Roman emperor, the Fama ( the allegorical figure of Fame ) with a coiled serpent ( symbol of eternity ) is crowned. In contrast to the Apotheosis of Prince Eugene of Permoser in the next room there is here clarity and balance between activity and rest, also demands of classicism anticipating.

After 1737 he produced his most famous work, the Providentia, (now New Market ) stands on the flour market in Vienna. It's amazing, a work commissioned by the city council, which afterwards hardly occurs before and long as a patron in appearance. To the allegorical figure of Providentia ( foresight, that the wise government ) are designed around next putt and fishing very much alive designed personifications of Austrian rivers in semi-recumbent position. Enns and Traun than men, March and Ybbs represented than women. This representation of river personifications was an example to the early 19th century, about the Austriabrunnen on Freyung or at the Albertina ramp. Today, the well is primarily known under the name Donnerbrunnen.

Another fountain in Vienna is the Andromeda fountain in the courtyard of the Altes Rathaus, the liberation of Andromeda is interpreted as an allegory of the liberation from the Turks.

His last major work is a Pieta in the cathedral of Gurk.

Until at least the late 18th century thunder sculpture remains as the formal ideal in Vienna upright, his brother Matthew, a teacher at the Academy, it is passed on to the next generation, such as Balthasar Ferdinand Moll, Johann Georg Dorfmeister or Jakob Christoph Schletterer.

Georg Raphael Donner was (today Rochusmarkt ) buried and moved to its abandonment in 1784 in a grave at an unknown location on the St. Marx Cemetery in rural Strasser St. Nicholas Cemetery.

In 1862 (1st district) was named the thunder alley after him in the Vienna Inner City. In addition, the Raphael Thunder Alley was in his birthplace, today part of Vienna's Essling, named after him. The brainchild of Richard Kauffungen and 1906 the Schwarzenberg Platz unveiled monument shows thunder with a model of Providentia figure for the fountain on the Neuer Markt.

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