Max von Widnmann
Max von Widnmann, origin. Maximilian Ritter von Widnmann ( born October 16, 1812 in Eichstätt, † March 3, 1895 in Munich) was a German sculptor.
Life
Widnmann was the son of the court, city and country doctor Franz Widnmann Amand and his wife Maximiliana born Pöckhel, widow of the prince-bishop's town and community physician Franz Seraph Ulrich. The youngest of three brothers attended the Eichstätter school and practiced this already busy in drawing and painting. In 1825 he went to the Royal Academy in Munich, where he was among other things a pupil of the sculptor Ludwig Michael von Schwanthalerstraße. By encouraging his teachers to Widnmann could stop 1836-1839 in Rome, where he was a friend of the then famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. He stood in friendly relations with the Cologne architect Sulpiz Boisserée whose art collection was acquired in 1827 by King Ludwig I of the Alte Pinakothek.
After his return to Widnmann settled as a freelance artist in Munich and soon enjoyed the favor of the King Ludwig I, who commissioned him, inter alia, with the creation of portrait busts for the Walhalla. Several of his statues were cast by Ferdinand von Miller in bronze.
1848 Widnmann was unanimously elected successor Schwanthaler proposed by academic staff and appointed by King Ludwig I as a professor at the Art Academy. As the fame he received numerous commissions from outside Bavaria. 1887 appointed him Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria Knight of the Bavarian crown and raising him in the personal nobility. With 75 years of Widnmann retired, he spent at Lake Starnberg and Munich, where he died at the age of 82 years. His grave is in the Old South Cemetery in Munich [ grave site: 17-01-39 ].
In the heavy air raids on Munich 1942-45 some of his works were destroyed.
Appreciation
Widnmann was a well-known sculptor of the 19th century. In creative imagination and ingenuity he stood by while his teacher Schwanthalerstraße, but his statues and busts incident in view of his contemporaries from a certain dignity, what is particularly important monuments and why he repeatedly received orders.
Works (selection)
- Busts of Christian Amberger, Hans Holbein, George of Freundsberg, Mandl, Rottmann
- Klenze Memorial
- Gardener monument
- Schiller and Goethe Memorial in Munich
- Marble portrait of the economist Friedrich List
- Marble bust of General Carl Wilhelm von Heideck in Ingolstadt
- Bishop monuments in Würzburg (Bronze Monument of Prince Bishop Julius Real Mespelbrunn ), Bamberg ( Monument of Prince-Bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal, cast in bronze by Ferdinand von Miller, 1865) and Regensburg ( Monument of Bishop Johann Michael Sailer )
- August Wilhelm Iffland and Wolfgang Heribert von Dalberg - Monument (1864 /66, in cast bronze by Ferdinand von Miller ), both in Mannheim
- Matilda of Hesse monument in the church at Darmstadt Ludwig
- Orlando di Lasso Statue on Promenade Square in Munich (1848 )
- Lorenz Westenrieder statue at Promenade Square in Munich (1854 )
- Christian Daniel Rauch statue in the Glyptothek
- Christoph von Schmid Memorial for Dinkelsbühl (1859, bronze cast by Ferdinand von Miller)
- Jacob Bauer bust in the Munich Isarauen / Flaucher (1861 )
- King Ludwig I equestrian statue at the Odeon Square in Munich (1862 )
- Castor and Pollux equestrian statues from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1886 )