Tobias Pock - Self portrait with his family

Tobias Pock (or Poch, Bock or Pockh) (1609 - 12 June 1683) was an Austrian

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

painter from

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

n descent, a pioneer of sacral art. Pock was born in

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

, where his father worked as a master at the Cathedral. Tobias Pock probably was an apprentice painter in Southern Germany. He worked mainly at first in Konstanz. But, after his trip to Italy, he settled around 1640 in Vienna, where he became a leading painter. He painted portraits, history canvases and still lifes, but he is mostly recognized for his many paintings of saints in churches in Vienna,

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

, and

Steiermark Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, ...

. His style is similar to the contemporary style of Southern Germany (München, Augsburg), but also contains influences from Flanders and Northern Italy. He died in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. He left a considerable body of work: * Stephansdom, Vienna: baroque altar painting "The Stoning of St. Stephen"(1640–47) (his earliest known work). * Dominican church, Vienna: **Altar of

Saint Dominic Saint Dominic, (; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (), was a Castilians, Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he a ...

: altar painting (1655), depicting the saint adoring the Trinity. **Chapel of St.

Catherine of Alexandria Catherine of Alexandria, also spelled Katherine, was, according to tradition, a Christian saint and Virginity, virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a ...

: altar painting * Schottenkirche, Vienna: altar paintings ''Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian'' (1649/1650), ''Assumption of Mary'' (1651/1655) and ''Saint Benedict'' (1654) * Michaelerkirche, Vienna: high altar painting (1642) * Maria Himmelfahrt basilica,

Sankt Pölten Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the States of Austria, State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 Januar ...

: high altar painting ''Assumption'' (1658) * Church of the Teutonic Order, Vienna: high altar painting ''Coronation of Saint Elisabeth of Thüringen by the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

and the

Christ Child The Christ Child—also known as Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, Child Jesus, Divine Child, Divine Infant and the Holy Child—refers to Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ during his early years. The term refers to a period of life of Jesus, Jesus' l ...

, together with

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

and

Saint Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...

'' (1667) * Mariazell Basilica: high altar painting * Decoration of the altar in the Dominikuskapelle at the Imperial Crypt, Vienna * Cartesian monastery in Brno-Královo Pole: painting (now substituted by a less valuable picture) * Svatý Kopeček (Saint Hill) near

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, Basilica Minor, St. Pauline, 1681, Altar of the Chapel of St. Pauline

References

* Turner, J. -

Grove Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

; Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1990; * Benezit, E. - Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs; Librairie Gründ, Paris, 1976; {{DEFAULTSORT:Pock, Tobias 17th-century Austrian painters Austrian male painters People from Konstanz 1609 births 1683 deaths Catholic painters