Matthias Rauchmiller

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John Nepomuk which was placed on the Charles Bridge in Prague
in 1683. Its iconography (bearded priest leaning to one side, wearing biretta, holding crucifix, haloed by five stars) became the archetype for later representations of this saint.

Matthias Rauchmiller (also known as Matthias Rauchmüller) was a painter, sculptor and ivory carver active and influential in Vienna after 1675. Born on 11 January 1645 in Radolfzell (near Lake Constance, in Germany), he died in Vienna on 5 February 1686.[1]

Life and work

Rauchmiller was born in 1645 in Radolfzell, the youngest son of the butcher Mathias Rauchmüller and his wife Agatha Schmid."[2]: 9–10 

Metternich tomb in the Liebfrauenkirche, Trier, Germany
Plague Column in Vienna, based on Rauchmiller's three-sided design

He probably received his earliest artistic training from a sculptor family in nearby Konstanz.[3] During his youth, he also traveled to the Southern Netherlands, where he was influenced by Peter Paul Rubens and his circle,[4] including some whose work has been linked to Rome's greatest Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.[2]: 17–18 

Rauchmiller worked between 1669 and 1671 in Mainz, where he created a crucifix for the local cathedral. Around 1675 he was commissioned to create a marble tomb for Karl Heinrich von Metternich-Winneburg, who was elected as Archbishop-Elector of Mainz and Bishop of Worms in 1679, but died before he could be consecrated as a bishop. The tomb was erected in the Liebfrauenkirche in Trier, Germany. According to art historian Laura Walew's essay about the tomb, "It is one of the first tombs with a lying figure north of the Alps after the Thirty Years' War."[2]: 11–12  Earlier tombs typically showed the dead person kneeling.

Rauchmiller's Liebfrauenkirche tomb sculpture shows Metternich reclining, reading a book, while a chubby, muscular putto (reminiscent of Rubens) looks on admiringly. According to Walew, "The Metternich tomb gives the impression of a subtle and expressive homage to an intelligent man of strong character."[5][2]: 23 

Some have considered his 1676 ivory tankard with scenes of The Rape of the Sabine Women to be his "masterwork."[3] This tankard is currently in the Princely Collection of Liechtenstein.[1]

In 1679, Rauchmiller was commissioned to design a Vienna monument celebrating the end of an epidemic of bubonic plague; instead of the pillar-shaped "plague column" typical at the time, Rauchmiller conceived a three-sided pyramid, with elaborate sculptured decorations.[3] The monument was later (1694) completed by other artists, but retains Rauchmiler's general design. Three of his sculptures (life-size angels) can also still be seen on the modern plague column in Vienna's Graben.[3]

In 1681 Rauchmiller designed a clay model for the

bozzetto inspired iconography of the saint into the 19th century.[6]

References

  1. ^ in Prague (1681) are also by him. His most noted work is an ivory carving depicting a tankard with bacchic scenes (1676). (English translation of German original)
  2. ^ a b c d Walew, Laura (2010). Matthias Rauchmillers Grabmal des Bischofs Karl von Metternich in der Liebfrauenkirche zu Trier (1670/74). Retrieved July 13, 2018. Matthias Rauchmiller was born on 11 January 1645 in Radolfzell on Lake Constance as the youngest child of the inhabitant and butcher, of the "honestus Mathias Rauchmüller" and his wife, the "virtuosa Agatha Rauchmüllerin." {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b c d Kossatz, Tillman. "Rauchmiller, Mathias". New German Biography 21 (2003). pp. 200–201. Retrieved July 10, 2018. In 1679 R. was awarded the contract for the Trinity Column donated by King Leopold I to the Graben in Vienna (completed in 1694) according to plans by JB Fischer von Erlach and L. Burnacini). The basic idea of replacing the hitherto usual pillar with a triangular-shaped pyramid has been preserved, as have three life-size, reading and musical angels of androgynous corporeality. English translation of German original)
  4. ISBN 9783110973440. Retrieved July 12, 2018. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  5. ^ English translation of German original)
  6. ^ a b c "Saint John of Nepomuk: Matthias Rauchmiller". National Gallery of Prague. Retrieved July 10, 2018. This rarely preserved bozzetto was the precursor to the representation of the bearded priest-canon with a biretta on his head, dressed in a cassock, surplice and almuce over his shoulders. The Viennese sculptor slightly emphasized the contrapposto of the small figure with narrow shoulders, crowned by the martyr's head inclined to one side, with the saint's left hand embracing the crucifix as if in a gesture protecting the dead Saviour. In this small statuette of a foreign origin, and its enlarged form on Charles Bridge, the main type of St John of Nepomuk's figure was constituted, subsequently repeated in a number of others, deep into the 19th century.

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