DOI Heft:
Nr. 1
DOI Artikel:Leibetseder, Stefanie: Iconographic studies of bas-reliefs and ivories by Paul Egell
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52949#0050
Düring the infancy of King Louis XV the land
was governed by a Regent Philippe d’Orléans, the
nephew of Louis XIV of France, who gave this
period its name: Régence.25 Louis XIV’s succession
brought a change in the court artists and general
artistic fashion. By the end of his reign, rieh Ba-
roque designs had given way to lighter éléments
with more curves and natural patterns. New artistic
tendencies developed first in the décorative arts and
interior design that gave way to the later Rococo
style. The 1730s, when Egell carved his Lamentation
scene,26 represented the height of the development
of Rococo ornamentation in France. 1t still main-
tained the Baroque taste for complex forms and
intricate patterns but by this point, it had begun to
integrate a variety of diverse characteristics, includ-
ing a taste for asymmetric compositions as Egell’s
relief demonstrates. The distinctive French character
of his ornament makes it assumable he had direct
access to engravings of French Ornaments early
on.27 The strap opera work ušed on the frame of
the Lamentation scene was developed by Jean Bérain
(1637 — 1711) by connecting the ornaments of the
arabesque and grotesque as well as the scrollwork. It
was intermediated to the German countries of the
25 Düring the Regency there was the Polysynody which was
the systém of government in use in France between 1715
and 1718 and in which each minister (secretary of state) was
replaced by a council. The Regent also introduced the systéme
de Eaw which transformed the finances of the bankrupted
kingdom and its aristocracy.
26 The ornamentation of Egell’s altarpieces, the Hildesheimer
Altar (1729 — 1731) and the fragment of the Mannheim
altarpiece (1738 — 1741), also follows drawings by Oppe-
nord. — KRAUSE, S.: Der Mannheimer Hochaltar von Paul
Egell. Überlegungen zur Rezeption römischer Basreliefs und
Wandretabel im frühen 18. Jahrhundert. In: Jahrbuch der Berliner
Museen. Neue Folge, 48, 2006, p. 69.
27 DÖRY, L.: Drei unbekannte Zeichnungen von Johann Paul
Egell. Versuch ihrer chronologischen Einordnung. In: Fest-
schrift fürHaraldKeller. Ed. H. M. FREIHERR VON ERFFA
— E. HERGET. Darmstadt 1963, p. 384. Zimmermann took
up Döry’s argument linking the shell-motive at the bottom
of the framing to other ornamentally decorated works by
Paul Egell thus dating the relief around the year 1730: "‘Seine
Ornamentik zeigt neben strengen Régence-Formen ein Muschelmotiv,
das ähnlich wie bei Egell’s Allegorien des Wassers von 1729 — 1730
im Treppenhaus des Mannheimer Schlosses wiederkehrt.” — E. ZIM-
MERMANN in Barock in Baden-Württemberg. Vom Ende des
Holy Roman Empire by influential engravers such
as Albrecht Biller (1663 — 1703) and Paul Decker (|
1713), whose Fürstlicher Raumeister-WAts, published one
year after the release of the œuvre of Jean Bérain
and part of the library at Mannheim court. Also
the female mask at the crest of the frame originates
within the work of Bérain.28
Yet, the composition of the reliefs depicting the
Lamentation and also the Dépositionfrom the Cross could
hâve been inspired by a design for an altarpiece by
Gilles-Marie Oppenord (1672 - 1742) [Fig. 4], It is
reduced on key elements of the depicted scenes: the
sprawled body of Christ and the kneeling Mother
of God in adoration before the cross. The “empty”
image carrier of Oppenord’s design and also Egell’s
bas-reliefs symbolizes the everlastingness of a time
transcending reality, as the golden background of me-
dieval paintings does. This may be regarded as a resuit
of the réception of antique bas-reliefs of the Cae-
sarean era, published for the first time by the painter
and engraver Pietro Santé Bartoli, a pupil of Nicolas
Poussin in 1690, and spread in print throughout Eu-
rope at that time.29 Drawings by Bartoli were also kept
at the Graphie collections of Mannheim palace; the
date of their acquisition again is not known.30
Dreißigjährigen Krieges spr Französischen Revolution.\rcA. 1. [Exhib.
Cat.] Karlsruhe 1981, pp. 171-172.
28 Regarding Bérain, see BLEIBAUM, E: Bandelwerk. In: Realle-
xikon zur Deutschen Kunstwissenschaft. Vol. 1. Ed. O. SCHMITT.
Stuttgart 1939, col. 1435-1436. Deckers FürstlicherBaumeisterms
acquired by Elector Johann Willhelm II (Jan Wellern) and later
a part of the library at Mannheim Palace, before taken to the
Bibliotheca Palatina at Düsseldorf. - SCHÜLER,).: Ein fürst-
liches Geschenk für Düsseldorfs „öffentliche Bibliothèque“.
Dubletten der Mannheimer Hofbibliothek. In: Bücher für die
Wissenschaft. Bibliotheken zwischen Tradition und Fortschritt. Festschrift
für Günter Gattermann zum 65. Geburtstag. Eds. G. KAISER et al.
München - New Providence — London — Paris 1994, p. 247.
29 See in detail KRAUSE 2006 (see in note 26), p. 64.
30 The Inventory of 1780 enumerates the following works
on p. 4, No. 19: “Petrus Bartoli, Ein port des feuilles mit anti-
quen Mahleriyen von Reiten des Antonius Pii, Vorlagen sind in der
Vatikanischen Bibliothec in einem Manuscript erfunden, 58 Stück!’
— HStA München, Geheimes Hausarchiv (Main State Archi-
ves Munich, Privy Archives; hereinafter HStA München),
Abt. III. Compare BARTOLI, P. S.: Admiranda Romanarum
antiquitatum ac veteris sculpturae vestigia: anaglyphico opere elaborata
ex mamoreis exemplaribus quae Romae adhuc extant. Romae 1693,
48
was governed by a Regent Philippe d’Orléans, the
nephew of Louis XIV of France, who gave this
period its name: Régence.25 Louis XIV’s succession
brought a change in the court artists and general
artistic fashion. By the end of his reign, rieh Ba-
roque designs had given way to lighter éléments
with more curves and natural patterns. New artistic
tendencies developed first in the décorative arts and
interior design that gave way to the later Rococo
style. The 1730s, when Egell carved his Lamentation
scene,26 represented the height of the development
of Rococo ornamentation in France. 1t still main-
tained the Baroque taste for complex forms and
intricate patterns but by this point, it had begun to
integrate a variety of diverse characteristics, includ-
ing a taste for asymmetric compositions as Egell’s
relief demonstrates. The distinctive French character
of his ornament makes it assumable he had direct
access to engravings of French Ornaments early
on.27 The strap opera work ušed on the frame of
the Lamentation scene was developed by Jean Bérain
(1637 — 1711) by connecting the ornaments of the
arabesque and grotesque as well as the scrollwork. It
was intermediated to the German countries of the
25 Düring the Regency there was the Polysynody which was
the systém of government in use in France between 1715
and 1718 and in which each minister (secretary of state) was
replaced by a council. The Regent also introduced the systéme
de Eaw which transformed the finances of the bankrupted
kingdom and its aristocracy.
26 The ornamentation of Egell’s altarpieces, the Hildesheimer
Altar (1729 — 1731) and the fragment of the Mannheim
altarpiece (1738 — 1741), also follows drawings by Oppe-
nord. — KRAUSE, S.: Der Mannheimer Hochaltar von Paul
Egell. Überlegungen zur Rezeption römischer Basreliefs und
Wandretabel im frühen 18. Jahrhundert. In: Jahrbuch der Berliner
Museen. Neue Folge, 48, 2006, p. 69.
27 DÖRY, L.: Drei unbekannte Zeichnungen von Johann Paul
Egell. Versuch ihrer chronologischen Einordnung. In: Fest-
schrift fürHaraldKeller. Ed. H. M. FREIHERR VON ERFFA
— E. HERGET. Darmstadt 1963, p. 384. Zimmermann took
up Döry’s argument linking the shell-motive at the bottom
of the framing to other ornamentally decorated works by
Paul Egell thus dating the relief around the year 1730: "‘Seine
Ornamentik zeigt neben strengen Régence-Formen ein Muschelmotiv,
das ähnlich wie bei Egell’s Allegorien des Wassers von 1729 — 1730
im Treppenhaus des Mannheimer Schlosses wiederkehrt.” — E. ZIM-
MERMANN in Barock in Baden-Württemberg. Vom Ende des
Holy Roman Empire by influential engravers such
as Albrecht Biller (1663 — 1703) and Paul Decker (|
1713), whose Fürstlicher Raumeister-WAts, published one
year after the release of the œuvre of Jean Bérain
and part of the library at Mannheim court. Also
the female mask at the crest of the frame originates
within the work of Bérain.28
Yet, the composition of the reliefs depicting the
Lamentation and also the Dépositionfrom the Cross could
hâve been inspired by a design for an altarpiece by
Gilles-Marie Oppenord (1672 - 1742) [Fig. 4], It is
reduced on key elements of the depicted scenes: the
sprawled body of Christ and the kneeling Mother
of God in adoration before the cross. The “empty”
image carrier of Oppenord’s design and also Egell’s
bas-reliefs symbolizes the everlastingness of a time
transcending reality, as the golden background of me-
dieval paintings does. This may be regarded as a resuit
of the réception of antique bas-reliefs of the Cae-
sarean era, published for the first time by the painter
and engraver Pietro Santé Bartoli, a pupil of Nicolas
Poussin in 1690, and spread in print throughout Eu-
rope at that time.29 Drawings by Bartoli were also kept
at the Graphie collections of Mannheim palace; the
date of their acquisition again is not known.30
Dreißigjährigen Krieges spr Französischen Revolution.\rcA. 1. [Exhib.
Cat.] Karlsruhe 1981, pp. 171-172.
28 Regarding Bérain, see BLEIBAUM, E: Bandelwerk. In: Realle-
xikon zur Deutschen Kunstwissenschaft. Vol. 1. Ed. O. SCHMITT.
Stuttgart 1939, col. 1435-1436. Deckers FürstlicherBaumeisterms
acquired by Elector Johann Willhelm II (Jan Wellern) and later
a part of the library at Mannheim Palace, before taken to the
Bibliotheca Palatina at Düsseldorf. - SCHÜLER,).: Ein fürst-
liches Geschenk für Düsseldorfs „öffentliche Bibliothèque“.
Dubletten der Mannheimer Hofbibliothek. In: Bücher für die
Wissenschaft. Bibliotheken zwischen Tradition und Fortschritt. Festschrift
für Günter Gattermann zum 65. Geburtstag. Eds. G. KAISER et al.
München - New Providence — London — Paris 1994, p. 247.
29 See in detail KRAUSE 2006 (see in note 26), p. 64.
30 The Inventory of 1780 enumerates the following works
on p. 4, No. 19: “Petrus Bartoli, Ein port des feuilles mit anti-
quen Mahleriyen von Reiten des Antonius Pii, Vorlagen sind in der
Vatikanischen Bibliothec in einem Manuscript erfunden, 58 Stück!’
— HStA München, Geheimes Hausarchiv (Main State Archi-
ves Munich, Privy Archives; hereinafter HStA München),
Abt. III. Compare BARTOLI, P. S.: Admiranda Romanarum
antiquitatum ac veteris sculpturae vestigia: anaglyphico opere elaborata
ex mamoreis exemplaribus quae Romae adhuc extant. Romae 1693,
48