SPÄTBAROCK IN SÜDDEUTSCHLAND UND ÖSTERREICH XI
DIESSEN AM AMMERSEE
I. The Pictorialization of Space
In his study, Die Bayerische Rokoko-Kirche (1959), Bernhard Rupprecht identifies five defining characteristics of Bavarian church design of the early 18th century:
A central space is formed and indirectly illuminated;
The boundaries of this space remain indefinite;
Traditional architectural forms are transformed, isolated, and/or displaced;
An ornamental stucco zone is placed between fresco and architecture;
A point of view near the entrance determines the perspective of the main ceiling fresco and allows for the apprehension of the space in its entirety as a pictorial whole.
The first four descriptive points could have beeh made any attentive observer; the fifth, interpretive point, concerning the Bildordnung des Raumes, is a major insight into the nature of Bavarian Rococo church architecture.
II. The Triumph of Stucco
Prior Herkulan Karg directed the rebuilding of the Augustinian church in the Bavarian village of Dießen am Ammersee from 1729-1739. An ambitious aesthete, Karg envisioned a church completely modern in style—a pure expression of cutting-edge taste. This goal would be realized by hiring the best artists of the day: Johann Michael Fischer, the pre-eminent German architect of the period, was chosen to direct the entire project. François de Cuvilliès was asked to collaborate with Fischer on the architectural design and he probably designed the high altar. The director of the Augsburger Kunstakademie, Johann Georg Bergmüller, received the commission for the ceiling fresco, which depicts the historical donors of Dießen. The artists commissioned to provide side altarpieces included Tiepolo, who was then the most highly-paid artist in Europe.
For the stuccateurs, Karg took a chance and hired a team of younger artisans without international reputations. Franz Xaver Feichtmayr, his brother Johann Michael Feichtmayr and Johann Georg Üblhör, all trained in Wessobrunn, had been involved in modest projects (and Üblhör had worked with Cuvilliès at Amalienburg), but had yet to distinguish themselves as artists.
It is said that indeterminacy and mediation of forms is a defining characteristic of Bavarian late baroque/rococo. That indeterminacy and mediation was expressed though the medium of stuccowork. Stucco was a profoundly adaptable medium, equally suited to abstraction and figuration, to two- and three- dimensionality, and to sculpture and architecture. This liminal media is the glue that holds the entire architectural-pictorial-decorative ensemble together.
At Dießen, Feichtmayr’s team recognized the full potential of the stucco medium, and with Fischer’s approval, they developed a system of Rococo cartouches and balustrades that integrated illusionistic ceiling painting, dome, and wall. This boundary-blurring high relief stucco became a template for numerous major monuments of the 1740s and ‘50s, and made the Feichtmayrs famous across Europe.
III. Theatre as Metaphor or Model?
Theatricality is a term used frequently in discussions of baroque church architecture. The design of the church at Dießen confirms that this is not just a metaphor. Positioned at the west end of the nave facing east, where one experiences "the apprehension of the space as a pictorial whole," described by Rupprecht, the succession of altarpieces mounted on piers receding towards a vanishing point in the high altar strongly resembles the perspectival scenography of the 18th-century stage (seen above in the Theâtre de la Reine in the Petit Trianon).
The series SPÄTBAROCK IN SÜDDEUTSCHLAND UND ÖSTERREICH has been on-going since this blog began in 2013. The previous installments are:
I. DIE ASAMKIRCHE
II. THE PILGRIMAGE CHURCH OF WIES
III. KLOSTER NERESHEIM
IV. THE TREPPENHAUS OF THE WÜRZBURG RESIDENZ
V. DAS MARKGRÄFLICHES OPERNHAUS ZU BAYREUTH
VI. STIFTSBIBLIOTHEK ADMONT
VII. VIERZEHNHEILIGEN
VIII. DAS HELBLINGHAUS
IX. GERMANIC BAROQUE ORGAN LOFTS
X. KLOSTER OTTOBEUREN
