which was ordered by Duke Albrecht of Saxony, in 1805, at the
price of 20,000 ducats; and the Theseus group, bought by the
emperor Francis, in Rome, which is now in the Vienna Museum.
Canova’s pupil, Pompeo Marchesi, was the author of the emperor
Francis monument, unveiled in 1846, in the inner court of the
Hofburg.
The first national sculptor of note was the Tirolese Franz Zauner (1746–1822), who was knighted in 1807 (the year in which his Kaiser-Joseph monument was unveiled) and became director of the Vienna gallery and academy. Among his works are the tomb of Leopold II. in the Augustinerkirche; the tomb of General Laudon at Hadersdorf; the tomb of the poet Heinrich von Collin in the Karlskirche in Vienna; and a number of busts in the Empire style, which are by no means remarkable as expressions of artistic individuality. Leopold Kiesling (1770–1827), another Tirolese, Whose first work on a large scale is the Mars, Venus and Cupid, in the Imperial gallery, was sent by his patron, Count Cobenzl, to Rome, where he was more attracted by Canova than by the antique or the late Renaissance. Joseph Klieber (1773–1850), also Tirolese, enjoyed the protection of Prince Johann Liechtenstein, who employed him in the plastic decoration of his town residence and country seats. His reputation as sculptor of colossal figures for imperial triumphal arches and lofty tombs was so widespread that he was given the commission for the catafalque of Louis XVIII. in Paris. Many middle-class houses of the Empire period in Vienna were decorated by him with reliefs of children. The elaborate relief figures on the Andreas Hofer monument in Innsbruck are the work of his hand. His followers were less favoured by powerful protection and were forced into a definite direction: among them must be mentioned Johann Martin Fischer (1740–1820), who succeeded Zauner as head of the academy. His best-known work is “The Muscle-man,” which still serves as model to students.
Of the greatest importance for the development of Austrian sculpture in the second half of the 19th century was the influence of Joseph Daniel Boehm (1794–1865), director of the academy of coin-engravers, and discriminating collector of art treasures. He was the father of Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, R.A. Emanuel von Max (1810–1900), who in conjunction with his brother Joseph modelled the Radetzky monument in Prague, wrote in his autobiography, concerning the year 1833 in Vienna: “Art, particularly sculpture, was at the lowest ebb. The appearance of a statuette or bust at an exhibition was considered an event.” But a strong movement began towards the end of the ’fifties. Professor Franz Bauer, of the Vienna academy (1797–1872), exercised a most stimulating influence upon the rising generation. Among the earlier artists, whose life overlaps into the new era, were Anton Dietrich (1799–1872), who is best known by “The Three Magi,” on the porch of the church of St John, and by a very beautiful ivory crucifix; and Johann Preleuthner (b. 1810).
The architectural rejuvenation of Vienna led to the rise of an original local school of sculpture. J. D. Boehm devoted himself almost entirely to goldsmith-work and medals, but with the aid of his great collections he taught the new generation and helped to develop original talent. Hans Gasser (1817–1868) owed him his introduction to society, for whom he produced many busts. He modelled the empress Elisabeth monument at the western railway station in Vienna, the Wieland monument in Weimar, and the famous “Donauweibchen” in the Vienna town park. His brother, Joseph Gasser von Wallhorn (b. 1816), was a sculptor of figures of saints, many of which decorate St Stephen’s Cathedral and the Votive Church in Vienna. Anton Fernkorn (1813–1878), born at Erfurt, was Austrian by his art. He started as a metal worker, and studied in Munich, but not at the academy. His talent was only fully developed after he settled in Vienna, which city owes to him the bold equestrian bronze monuments of Archduke Charles (1859) and Prince Eugene of Savoy (1865). He became director of the imperial bronze foundry, in which post he was followed by his pupil Franz Poenninger. Johann Meixner (b. 1819 in Bohemia) is the creator of the marble figures on the Albrecht Fountain, one of the most famous and imposing monuments in Vienna. Vienna received a few of her most important monuments from the strong personality of the Westphalian Kaspar von Zumbusch (b. 1830), the Beethoven monument, and that o Maria Theresa, an imposing and skilfully designed work, which solves in admirable fashion the problem of placmga. monument effectively between the heavy masses of the two imperial museums. Munich owns his monument of Kin Maximilian II. Zumbusch’s fame did not quite overshadow that of Karl Kundmann (b. 1838), to whose vigorous art Vienna owes the Tegetthoff monument (based on the Duilius column), the Schubert statue, the seated figure of Grillparzer, and the awkwardly placed “Minerva” in front of the houses of parliament. Joseph V. Myslbeck (b. 1848) worked under Thomas Seidaus (1830–1890), and is the author of the equestrian figure of St Vaelav, of “The Crucified Saviour,” and of the Sladkowsky tomb in Prague. The most successful of the younger school was Edmund Hellmer (b. 1850), who executed the group on the pediment of the houses of parliament; “Francis Joseph granting the Constitution”; the Turkish monument at St Stephen’s; one of the wall fountains on the façade of the new Hofburg (Austria’s land power)—the companion figure (“Sea Power”) is by Rudolf Weyr (b. 1847);—the animated Bacchus frieze of the Court Theatre; the statue of Francis Joseph in the polytechnic institute; and the reliefs of the Grillparzer monument.
Like Hellmer and Weyr, Victor Tilgner (1844–1896) was a pupil of F. Bauer; but he owed his training rather to Joseph von Gasser and Daniel Boehm. He produced a vast number of portrait busts of his most prominent contemporaries in Vienna. Among his most notable monuments are those to Mozart and Makart in Vienna, the Werndl figure at Steyr, Bürgermeister Petersen in Hamburg, and a war memorial at Königgrätz, in addition to numerous monumental fountains. Artistically on a higher plane than Tilgner stands Arthur Strasser (b. 1854), who excelled in polychromatic work on a small scale. In the ’seventies his Japanese figures excited considerable interest and attracted Makart’s attention. He excelled in Egyptian and Indian genre figures, such as a praying Hindu between two elephants. An Arab leaning against a Sphinx and a classic female figure with a funeral torch were strikingly decorative. His green patined bronze of “The Triumph of Antinous” with a team of lions was awarded a first medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900.
Vincenz Pilz (b. 1816) was the sculptor of the quadrigas and caryatids on the Vienna houses of parliament, and of the Kolnitz and Türck monuments. Contempora with him were Karl, Costenoble (b. 1837), Alois Dull (b. 1843), Otto König (b. 1838), Anton Schmidgruber (b. 1837), the craftsman Franz Schonthaler, Johann Silbernagel (b. 1839) the author of the Liebenberg monument in Vienna, and Anton Wagner (1834–1900), whose “Goose Girl” is one of the monumental features of the streets of Vienna. Classic form was represented by Johannes Benk, who did good work in groups for pediments. One of his latest productions is the Arnerlin monument in the Vienna town park. Theodor Friedel (1842–1899) excelled in decorative work on a large scale.” His are “The Horse Tamers” in front of the Hof-Stallgebäude.
Edmund Hofmann von Aspernburg (b. 1847) is the sculptor of the Friedrich Schmidt monument, of the bronze centaurs in front of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, and of the monument of Archduke Karl Ludwig. The works of Stefan Schwartz (b. 1851) are remarkable for their vigour. He excelled in a new technique of embossing portrait plaques in silver direct from life.” He counts also among the best Viennese medallists, almost equalling, Heinrich Natter (1844–1892). Hermann Klotz (b. 1850) became professor of sculpture in wood. The very talented statuette-maker Ludwig Dürnbauer (1860–1895) died almost at the beginning of what promised to be a brilliant career. Other distinguished sculptors of statuettes and works on a small scale were Hans Rathausky (b. 1858) and Johann Scherpe (b. 1855), who was entrusted with the execution of the Anzengruber monument. They all were pupils of Kundmann, as was also the animal sculptor Lax. Karl Schwerzek is the author of the Lenau and Anastasias Grün busts in Vienna, and Franz Vogl (b. 1861) of the poet Raimund’s monument. Among Zumbusch’s pupils were Anton Brenck, the creator of the emperor Joseph II. monuments in Brünn and Reichenberg; Emanuel Pendl, whose colossal marble statue of “Justice” is laced in the law courts in Vienna; and Hans Bitterlich (b. 1860), whose bust of Exner in the Vienna university is one of the most remarkable pieces of realistic portraiture in that city. Another work of his is the Gutenberg monument. Othmar Schimkowitz is remarkable for a strikingly original style.
In the other provinces under the Austrian emperor’s rule, the best-known sculptors are the Carniole Marcell Guigki (1830–1894), Lewandowski, Buracz, and the Tirolese Gurschner, who follows the modern French style of statuette sculptors.
In the art of the medallist, Professor Karl Radnitzky the elder (b. 1818) led the way after J. D. Boehm; but he was surpassed by his pupil Joseph Tautenhayn (b. 1837), whose large shield “Struggle between the Centaurs and Lapithae” was the cause of his appointment as professor. More important still is Anton Scharff (b. 1845), a real master of the delicate art of the medallist.
At the beginning of the 19th century the art of sculpture was practically dead in Spain—or at least was mainly confined to the mechanical production of images of saints. But towards the middle of the century the two brothers Agapito and Venancio Vallmitjana, of Barcelona, encouraged by the enthusiasm with which some of Spanish 19th-century sculptors. their works had been received by local connoisseurs, took part
