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LUDWIG MICHAEL SCHWANTHALER (1802-1848)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 388 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LUDWIG See also:MICHAEL See also:SCHWANTHALER (1802-1848)  , See also:German sculptor, was See also:born in See also:Munich on the 26th of See also:August 1802 . His See also:family had been sculptors in See also:Tirol for three centuries; See also:young See also:Ludwig received his earliest lessons from his See also:father, and the father had been instructed by the grandfather . The last to See also:bear the name was Xaver, who worked in his See also:cousin Ludwig's studio and survived till 1854 . For successive generations the family lived by the See also:carving of busts and sepulchral monuments, and from the See also:condition of See also:mechanics See also:rose to that of artists . From the Munich gymnasium See also:Schwanthaler passed as a student to the Munich See also:academy; at first he purposed to be a painter, but afterwards reverted to the plastic arts of his ancestors . His talents received timely encouragement by a See also:commission for an elaborate See also:silver service for the See also:king's table . See also:Cornelius also befriended him; the See also:great painter was occupied on designs for the decoration in See also:fresco of the newly erected See also:Glyptothek, and at his See also:suggestion Schwanthaler was employed on the See also:sculpture within the halls . Thus arose between See also:painting, sculpture, and See also:architecture that See also:union and mutual support which characterized the revival of the arts in See also:Bavaria . Schwanthaler in 1826 went to See also:Italy as a pensioner of the king, and on a second visit in 1832 See also:Thorwaldsen gave him kindly help . His skill was so See also:developed that on his return he was able to meet the extra-See also:ordinary demand for sculpture consequent on King Ludwig's See also:passion for See also:building new palaces, churches, galleries and museums, and he became the See also:fellow-worker of the architects Klenze, Gartner and Ohlmuller, and of the painters Cornelius, Schnorr and See also:Hess . Owing to the magnitude and multitude of the plastic products they turned out, over-pressure and haste in See also:design and workmanship brought down the quality of the See also:art . The See also:works of Schwanthaler in Munich are so many and See also:miscellaneous that they can only be briefly indicated .

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palace is peopled with his statues: the See also:throne-See also:room has twelve imposing gilt See also:bronze figures to ft. high; the same palace is also enriched with a See also:frieze and with sundry other decorations modelled and painted from his drawings . The sculptor, like his contemporary painters, received help from trained pupils . The same prolific artist also furnished the old Pinakothek with twenty-five See also:marbles, commemorative of as many great painters; likewise he supplied a See also:composition for the See also:pediment of the See also:exhibition building facing the Glyptothek, and executed sundry figures for the public library and the See also:hall of the marshals . Sacred art See also:lay outside his ordinary routine, yet in the churches of St Ludwig and St Mariahilf he gave See also:proof of the widest versatility . The Ruhmeshalle afforded further See also:gauge of unexampled See also:power of See also:production; here alone is See also:work which, if adequately studied, might have occupied a lifetime; ninety-two metopes, and, conspicuously, the See also:colossal but feeble figure of Bavaria, 6o ft. high, See also:rank among the boldest experiments . A See also:short See also:life of See also:forty-six years did not permit serious undertakings beyond the Bavarian See also:capital, yet See also:time was found for the See also:groups within the See also:north pediment of the Walhalla, Ratisbon, and also for numerous portrait statues, including those of See also:Mozart, See also:Jean See also:Paul See also:Richter, See also:Goethe and See also:Shakespeare . Schwanthaler died at Munich in 1848, and See also:left by will to the Munich academy all his See also:models and studies, which now See also:form the Schwanthaler Museum .

End of Article: LUDWIG MICHAEL SCHWANTHALER (1802-1848)
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