Johann Peter Melchior

Johann Peter Melchior ( born March 8, 1747 in Lintorf Ratingen, † June 13, 1825 in Nymphenburg in Munich) was a German sculptor and designer porcelain.

Life and work

Melchior 's parents were Peter Melchior († 1758) and Mary Cherry († 1754). After the early death of his parents, he was raised by step-parents. He probably lived until 1761 in his birthplace Lintorf. Gebard Boos, sculptor from Aachen, trained him. After stopovers in Cologne and Koblenz, he got a job at the kurmainzischen porcelain factory. The first known artistic works were created in 1765 in Mainz for the Elector Joseph Emmerich.

Since 1768 was Melchior model master of Höchst Porcelain Manufactory, 1770 was appointed court sculptor kurmainzischen. Melchior also made acquaintance with Goethe, which he created in 1775 a relief portrait. From 15 November 1779 to 1793 was Melchior model champion in Frankenthal, from 1797 until November 22, 1822 Model champion in the Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg, near Munich.

He married on November 27, 1770 in Mainz Mary Barbara Patz with whom he had seven children. His last known descendants of August and Georg Wilhelm Melchior died in 1935 or 1937 in Munich childless. From him comes a marble monument of the Provost Bernhard von Breidenbach in the Mainz Cathedral. For the Queen Caroline of Bavaria, he created some groups in Alabaster and Profilbildnisse their parents. The busts of Napoleon, Goethe, an allegorical group on the birth of Prince Friedrich Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria are from his hand. He published an essay on the visible and the sublime in art, 1781 in Mannheim.

After Johann Peter Melchior Melchiorstraße in Frankfurt-Höchst and Cologne, and the Johann -Peter - Melchior - road and urban Catholic elementary school are named in his birthplace Lintorf. In Ratingen is a permanent exhibition on his life and work furnished.