Franz Joseph Spiegler (5 April 1691 – 15 April 1757) was a German Baroque

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

. He is best known for his frescoes, which decorate many of the churches and monasteries along the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. The frescoes in the Zwiefalten Abbey are considered his masterpiece.''Germany: A Phaidon Cultural Guide.'' Oxford: Phaidon, 1985. pp. 775–776. .

Life and work

Spiegler was born the

Free Imperial City In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

Wangen im Allgäu Wangen im Allgäu (Low Alemannic: ''Wãnge'') is a historic city in southeast Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It lies north-east of Lake Constance in the Westallgäu. It is the second-largest city (Population: 26,927 in 2020) in the Ravensburg distric ...

, the son of a district court attorney. After the death of his father in 1692, his mother married the painter Adam Joseph Dollmann, a member of an old patrician family in Wangen. This was Spiegler's introduction to the arts. Around 1710 Spiegler began training as a painter in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

under the tutelage of his great-uncle, the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

Johann Kaspar Sing. During the course of his studies, Spiegler also became acquainted with the historical painting in vogue with the Dutch painters of the time. From 1723 to 1725 Spiegler painted frescoes in the Ottobeuren Abbey that show the strong influence of the Italian painter Jacopo Amigoni (1682–1752). Later he also created frescoes and

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

s for numerous monasteries, churches, and castles in the regions of Upper Swabia,

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...

, the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

, and the

Upper Rhine The Upper Rhine (german: Oberrhein ; french: Rhin Supérieur) is the section of the Rhine between Basel in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany, surrounded by the Upper Rhine Plain. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529 (the ...

. In 1757 Spiegler died in

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 ...

Major works

Baden-Württemberg

* Altheim, Biberach (near Riedlingen)—Parish Church of St. Martin (1747) (frescoes and three oil paintings) *

Bad Säckingen Bad Säckingen ( High Alemannic: ''Bad Säckinge'') is a rural town in the administrative district of Waldshut in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is famous as the "Trumpeteer's City" because of the book ''Der Trompeter von Säcki ...

—Covent Church of St. Fridolin (1753–1754) (frescoes) * Bonndorf— Schloss Bonndorf (1726) (fresco) * Gossenzugen—Chapel (ca. 1749) (frescoes) *

—Augustinian Church of the Holy Trinity (Dreifaltigkeitskirche) (1740) (frescoes) * Mainau—Castle chapel (1737–1738) (frescoes) * Merdingen—Parish Church of St. Remigius (1739–1741) (frescoes and altar paintings) * Mochental—Castle chapel (1734) (fresco) * St. Peter im Schwarzwald— St. Peter's Abbey in the Black Forest (1727; 1739) (frescoes) *

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada Ontario * Bruce County ** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie ** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce * Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, part ...

— Cistercian Abbey Church (1730) (ceiling frescoes in the transepts and the organ loft) * Stühlingen—Monastery Church of Maria Loreto (1740–1741) (four side altar paintings and upper galleries) * Untersulmetingen—Chapel in Schloss Untersulmetingen (frescoes and oil paintings) *

Weingarten Weingarten may refer to: Places * Weingarten, Württemberg, Germany ** Weingarten Abbey * Weingarten (Baden), Germany * Weingarten, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Weingarten, Thuringia, Germany * Weingarten, Switzerland * Weingarten, Missouri ...

— Benedictine Monastery Church of St. Martin of Tours and St. Oswald (1783) (oil painting on side altar) *

Zwiefalten Zwiefalten is a municipality in the district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany located halfway between Stuttgart and Lake Constance. The former Zwiefalten Abbey dominates the town. The former monastery is considered one of the finest exam ...

— Zwiefalten Münster (1728–1729; 1747–1753) (frescoes)

Bavaria

* Hergatz—Parish Church of Maria Thann (1722–1723) (frescoes) * Lindau—Cathedral "Unserer Lieben Frau" (1736) (fresco) * Ottobeuren— Benedictine Monastery Church of the Holy Trinity and monastery buildings (1723–1725) (frescoes in the corridors and stairways and in the secret archives of the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

, the ceiling fresco of

Comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

and

Tragedy Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

in the theater)

Switzerland

* Muri— Benedictine Abbey of St. Martin of Tours (1746) (five oil paintings for the high altar and side altar paintings)

Gallery

File:Kloster St. Peter auf dem Schwarzwald-Kirche-innen.JPG, Interior of St. Peter's Abbey in the Black Forest File:Zwiefalten_Muenster.jpg, Interior of the Zwiefalten Abbey File:KlosterkircheMuriInnen.jpg, Interior of Muri Abbey, showing high altar painted by Spiegler

References

Bibliography

* Bruno Bushart. ''Franz Joseph Spiegler. Versuch einer Positionsbestimmung''. In: Eduard Hindelang (Ed.). ''Franz Anton Maulbertsch und sein schwäbischer Umkreis''. Sigmaringen: Museum Langenargen, 1996. . pp. 87–114. * Raimund Kolb. ''Franz Joseph Spiegler, 1691-1757. „Barocke Vision über dem See“. Erzähltes Lebensbild und wissenschaftliche Monographie''. Bergatreute: Eppe, 1991. . * Peter Stoll: ''The Monasteranenagh miracle (1579): an Irish legend in a south German abbey church''. In: Thomas O'Connor, Mary Ann Lyons (ed.): ''The Ulster earls and baroque Europe : Refashioning Irish identities, 1600 - 1800''. Dublin : Four Courts Press, 2010. . pp. 262 – 277. (About one of Spiegler's frescoes in Zwiefalten.)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiegler, Franz Joseph 1691 births 1757 deaths People from Wangen im Allgäu 18th-century German painters 18th-century German male artists German male painters Baroque painters Fresco painters