Wessobrunner School
Wessobrunner school refers to a variety of artisans and artists (mostly plasterers ), who were trained by the end of the 17th century in the workshops of the Benedictine Wessobrunn in Upper Bavaria. There, up to 300 people were employed at times. More than 600 of these plasterers, builders and engravers are known by name. The Wessobrunner influenced decisively in the 18th century stucco art in Southern Germany, Tyrol and Switzerland and dominated them at times.
The term was coined in 1888 Wessobrunner school of art historians Gustav von Bezold and Georg Hager. As the founder of the builders and plasterers Caspar Feichtmayr be (* 1639-1704 [? ] ) And Johann Schmuzer ( 1642-1701 ) is considered.
Representative
The most important representatives, the brothers Johann Baptist and Dominic Zimmermann, the Schmuzer active over several generations, and the family Feichtmayr / Feuchtmayer apply. Some Wessobrunner also worked as a builder, such as Johann and Joseph Schmuzer or Dominic Zimmermann. Other important families were the Finsterwalder with Ignaz Finsterwalder, Gigl, Merck, smoke, Schaidauf, Übelher with Johann Georg Üblhör and Zöpf with Thassilo Zöpf.
Development of the plasterer crafts
The stucco technique has been applied to 7000 BC, and experienced in Renaissance Italy, a flower. In Germany they first appeared in the residence Landshut in 1545. If Michael Wening in his " Historico - Topographica Descriptio " (Part 1) anno 1701 mentioned, the inhabitants of the monastery Wessobrunn belonging villages Gaispoint and Haid worked mainly as Stuckatoren and masons, as this implies a long standing tradition.
In Bavaria, the end of the 16th century, indigenous masons and stonecutters went with Italian plasterers an alliance. In the 17th century, the most important Stuckatorenzentrum of Europe at that time, to which the most important tasks were given not only in Southern Germany but also in France, Poland, Hungary and Russia in the 18th century developed into Wessobrunn. The Italian competition could not keep up.
The highlight of this decorative art was built by Dominic Zimmermann and stuccoed and frescoed by his brother Johann Baptist Sanctuary Meadow (1744 ff.) In this construction even architectural elements, as it were for ornament.
The arcade arches in the choir about are nothing but monumental, openwork rocaille cartouches. However, the step to this uncompromising transfer of rocaille on the architecture occurred only Dominic Zimmermann.
From about 1750 engineering fell by generally; most large Rococo and pilgrimage churches were completed. When they came off 1770 in Bavaria from the plastic moldings and a regulation called for more sobriety and objectivity, the Wessobrunnern the raison d'être was to some extent withdrawn. Even if there was a early classical construction wave 1775-1790 again, the number of stucco artist sank. Founded in 1783 "Society of Stuccatoren " had 68 members in 1798 there were 27 and 1864 only nine members.
The broadcast of the Wessobrunner plasterers can be observed in many European countries, especially in neighboring western Austria.