Matthias Rauchmiller clay model for the statue of St John of Nepomuk on Charles Bridge in Prague

Matthias Rauchmiller (also known as Matthias Rauchmüller) was a painter, sculptor and ivory carver active and influential in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

after 1675. Born on January 11, 1645, in Radolfzell (near Lake Constance, in Germany), he died in Vienna on February 5, 1686.

Life and work

Rauchmiller was born in 1645 in Radolfzell, the youngest son of the butcher Mathias Rauchmüller and his wife Agatha Schmid." Liebfrauen Trier innen BW 4

He probably received his earliest artistic training from a sculptor family in nearby

Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...

. During his youth, he also traveled to the

Southern Netherlands The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by the A ...

, where he was influenced by

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...

and his circle, including some whose work has been linked to Rome's greatest Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Rauchmiller worked between 1669 and 1671 in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

, where he created a crucifix for the local

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

. 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." 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."English translation of German original) Some have considered his 1676 ivory tankard with scenes of

The Rape of the Sabine Women The Rape of the Sabine Women ( ), also known as the Abduction of the Sabine Women or the Kidnapping of the Sabine Women, was an incident in Roman mythology in which the men of Rome committed a mass abduction of young women from the other citi ...

to be his "masterwork." This tankard is currently in the Princely Collection of Liechtenstein. 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. 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. In 1681 Rauchmiller designed a clay model for the St. John Nepomuk statue, which was installed in 1683 on the

Charles Bridge Charles Bridge ( cs, Karlův most ) is a medieval stone arch bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the early 15th century.; The ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. The Nepomuk statue was the first of many baroque statues of saints now on the bridge. Rauchmiller's clay model (still on display in the National Gallery of Prague) was executed in wood by sculptor

Jan Brokoff Jan Brokoff, also known as Johann Brokoff, (23 June 1652 – 28 December 1718) was a baroque-era sculptor and carver. Brokoff was of Carpathian German origin, born in Spišská Sobota, today in Slovakia, then in Royal Hungary, and later w ...

, and then cast in bronze by Hieronymus Herold, a bell-maker of Nuremberg. The iconography of Rauchmiller's

bozzetto A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...

inspired iconography of the saint into the 19th century.

References

External links

Web Gallery of art includes three works by Rauchmiller

"Resplendent tankard" by Rauchmiller (1676)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rauchmiller, Matthias 1645 births 1686 deaths 17th-century sculptors 17th-century painters 17th-century Austrian people People from Radolfzell Ivory carvers