Johann Eleazar Zeissig

Johann Eleazar Zeissig called Schenau ( born November 7, 1737 Grossschönau; † August 23, 1806 in Dresden ) was a German painter and director of the Art Academy in Dresden.

Life

Schenau was born as the son of the destitute Damastwebers Zeissig Elias and Anna Elisabeth, born Paul, in Grossschönau in the Electorate of Saxony. Along with his five sisters Schenau was educated by his father and taught in arithmetic, writing, reading and Damastweben. Early on, the talent Schenaus showed for painting and drawing, so he was sent at the age of twelve to Dresden, where he first earned money as a lawyer's clerk and incidentally recorded. He was accepted at the Dresden School of Drawing Through the mediation of a pupil of Anton Raphael Mengs.

Here he received his education at Charles -François de Silvestre, the son of the director of the Dresden School of Drawing Louis de Silvestre. He was allowed Charles -François de Silvestre accompany as a partner of Louis de Silvestre after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756 to Paris, where he worked until 1770, among others, Johann Georg Wille and studied at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. Here he made ​​the acquaintance of leading French artists of his time, such as François Boucher, Gabriel François Doyen, Maurice Quentin de La Tour and Edmé Bouchardon; particularly influenced him the works of Jean -Baptiste Greuze. Schenau began working for his keep copies of well-known works, among others, Antonio da Correggio, Guido Reni and Titian, to customize and to seek the advice of the Saxon ambassador and patron General Fontenay other fields of activity. He worked in the following years with the porcelain painting, which he got to know in more detail in the porcelain manufactory at Sèvres, and drew for goldsmith, engraver and sculptor. He laid at this time from his family name Zeissig and named after his birthplace in the future Schönau Schenau.

Through the influence of his mentor Charles -François de Silvestre, or rather his wife, who was the 's reader and confidante of the Dauphine Maria Josepha, Schenau was introduced to the French court, where he has received numerous of the Crown Princess of France orders and soon one of the most prestigious genre painters in Paris belonged. He made, among other portraits of Maria Josepha and Madame de Pompadour.

After the end of the Seven Years' War in 1770 Schenau returned to Dresden. It was through the intercession of Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn in the same year a member of the Dresden Academy of Arts and three years later got the post of Director of the Drawing School of the porcelain factory in Meissen. In Meissen, he taught students not only in china drawing, but also designed new models themselves.

In 1774 he became professor of genre and portrait painting at the Dresden Art Academy. After Charles François Hutin death, he was sole in 1776, together with Giovanni Battista Casanova alternate director of the Academy and after Casanova's death in 1795 director. His students included Christian Henry Becke, Friedrich Rehberg and Christian Leberecht Vogel, his admirers among others, the writer August Gottlieb Meissner, the 1781 Alcibiades his work dedicated to him.

In 1796 Schenau resigned as director of the Drawing School of the Meissen porcelain factory and devoted himself in the years that followed his lectureship at the Art Academy. Schenau died in 1806 in Dresden. His grave was originally located at the Dresden Johanniskirchhof and was established in September 1854, transferred to a resolution of the secularization of the cemetery at the old cemetery in Grossschönau.

Artistic creation

Schenau began his artistic career as a copyist of the old masters. In Paris he was known by personal acquaintances with painters of his time, but also through his studies at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture with the French art theory of time. His work also reveals the influence of the Dutch minor masters and reminiscent of works Gerard Dou's Caspar Netscher or which have been translated into the formal language of the 18th century. With the Dutch painting Schenau was known among other things for art studies in the Louvre in Paris.

He also painted under the influence of his French friends, Jean Siméon Chardin and especially Jean -Baptiste Greuze Rococo typical genre paintings and portraits, among other members of the royal family lived in Dresden. Many of his drawings and paintings also came to his time in Paris as a copperplate reproductions on the market. Under the name Daniel Heimlich Schenau also published etchings of views from the area around Paris.

During his time at the Dresden Art Academy is Schenau also turned to history painting and excited with his altarpiece for the Großschönauer resurrection of Christ Church in 1786, the minds, which even " a special little pamphlet literature brought forth " in the sequence. This was due mainly disagreements between Schenau and Casanova to the artistic ideal of the time.

Although Schenau was one of the " influential mediator ... the French art of the second half of the 18th century in Saxony" and thus the Saxon landscape art in the 18th century significantly influenced, Schenaus works of art are largely unknown and have been considered already in the 19th century as obsolete. " His disciples he would never be able to serve as a model. Although Schenau had imagination and skill for composition, his drawing is not infrequently incorrect, his characters lack true life and expression, and the coloring is colorful, even in the shade still glowing "Georg Kaspar Nagler criticized the new general Künstler-Lexicon 1845, the artist, however, held benefit that even the art was still caught up in the old manner at the time of his death in 1806. " The dawn of a better time, he did not crack. In Schenau one sees only the painter of French gallantry and conversation pieces. "

Many of his works are now considered lost or destroyed Schenaus altarpiece of Dresden Kreuz church crucifixion of Christ, which he had made ​​from 1788 to 1792 and was recognized by contemporaries as "his vorzüglichstes Gemählde in historic times ." It was destroyed in the fire of the nave in 1897 and replaced by the present altarpiece by Anton Dietrich.

Most of his surviving works is now in museums in Saxony. The Dresden State Art Collections have, among other things, his works The Elector of Saxony Family ( 1772) and The Art Talk (1777 ). Many works Schenaus be shown in German damask and Frottiermuseum his hometown Grossschönau, which is on the Austraße 's named after Schenau.

Works

Example: The art discussion

An important work in Schenaus work presents the 1777 resulting oil painting The art discussion dar. It shows in the right foreground the Saxon Conference Minister, art lover, patron and collector, Thomas Fritsch together with Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, of and since 1764 Saxon " General of Arts, Art Academies then associated galleries and Cabinets " was and had called Schenau to the art academy. Both are engrossed in a conversation about art a medal, which holds Fritsch in his hand. On the table between them, the allegorical figures painting, sculpture and poetry can be seen. In the background the painter Adrian Zingg (left), Schenau himself and Anton Graff keep on listening.

Schenau notes in his paintings the understanding of the meaning and function of art in the age of Enlightenment exemplify: In the circle of friends, the values ​​of works of art should be covered in the interview, target of the exchange were instruction and quiet pleasure.

Other works

  • The double loss (1770 )
  • The Elector of Saxony's Family ( 1772)
  • Priam begs Achilles for the body of Hector (1775 )
  • The art discussion (1777 )
  • Couple in the arbor ( 1785 )
  • Self Portrait ( 1785 )
  • Resurrection of Christ ( 1786)
  • Crucifixion of Christ (1788-1792)
  • Christ on the Mount of Olives (1795 )
  • Family Scene ( 1800)
  • Signing of the marriage contract (1802 )
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