Joseph Knabl
Encyclopedia
Joseph Knabl was an Austrian sculptor who specialized in religious statuary.

Biography

Knabl was born at Fliess, Tyrol
Tyrol (state)
Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

,
to a humble peasant family. He tended cattle as a boy, but showed an early aptitude for wood-carving. He was apprenticed to Renn, an Imst
Imst
Imst is a city in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol. It lies on the River Inn in western Tyrol, some 55 km west of Innsbruck and at an altitude of 828 m above sea-level...

 woodcarver, after which he studied ancient German wood-carving at Munich under Entres. Later he worked in the studio of Sickinger, and became, in 1859, a professor at the polytechnical school of the "Verein fur Hebung des Gewerbes". In 1859 he entered the art institute of Mayer.

Knabl was married. His son Karl (died 15 June 1904) was a successful landscape artist.

Career

After completing his formal studies Knabl toured extensively through Middle Europe and became intimately acquainted with the finest examples of ecclesiastical sculpture. He then began producing similar works. In 1863 he was made Professor of Ecclesiastical Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, in recognition of his principal work in the Munich Frauenkirche
Munich Frauenkirche
The Frauenkirche is a church in the Bavarian city of Munich that serves as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising and seat of its Archbishop. It is a landmark and is considered a symbol of the Bavarian capital city.The church towers are widely visible because of local height...

, The Coronation of the Virgin. That work depicts the Virgin Mary in larger-than-life size at the center of the high altar, surrounded by 6 worshipping angels. She is being crowned by the Holy Trinity, while forms of saints and angels appear in the framework.

Because of the nature of his sculptures, Knabl is considered a Romantic artist
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

. His sculptures are strongly evocative of German Middle Ages output. His work at the Mayer Institute, where he not only produced numerous drawings and sketches, but also trained capable scholars, furthered the diffusion of a cultivated taste in religious art. Most of his works are in Bavaria (Munich, Haidhausen, Passau, Eichstadt, Velden), but there are also some in Stuttgart, Mergentheim, and in other places. The subjects are: "Christ and the Apostles", "Christ on the Cross", several single statues of the Madonna (one for Lord Acton), the Madonna in a group, St. Anne (much admired at the Munich Exposition of 1858 on account of its artistic draping). A group of St. Afra (Augsburg) was the first of the artist's works to attract attention.
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