DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0145
THE BAVARIA FESTIVAL.
129
Schwanthaler the sculptor, and his friend Lazarini, his
“right hand,” as he called him, who modelled the colossal
figure under his direction.
Though Schwanthaler was already attacked by his fatal
malady at the time when he designed the Bavaria at the
king’s suggestion, he not only modelled a variety of designs
for the Colossus, but also completed a smaller figure of the
Bavaria as we now see her, thirteen feet high. When
the huge wooden tower was built in the Royal Bronze
Foundry, and after what may be called a gigantic wooden
skeleton had been erected by a crowd of carpenters,—after
tons and tons of clay had been piled together over this, so
as to form a mass of material on which to work,—there,
day after day, might be seen the unwearied, energetic,
though physically suffering sculptor, guiding with watch-
fulness and love the accomplishment of his idea, which
ever grew beneath the hand of his friend Lazarini and his
troop of workmen.
Stiglmayer, the originator and director of the Bronze
Foundry, died in 1844, just before the casting of the
Bavaria began. His nephew, Ferdinand Miller, full of
youth, energy, patience, and experience, was ready to
succeed him. The castings took place at five different
times,—commencing with the head. This was cast in
1844. In casting the bust of the figure—the largest
portion—the greatest difficulty had to be encountered. It
was necessary to melt for the purpose twenty tons of
bronze,—five tons more than had ever before been melted
in the furnace. As this immense mass of metal slowly
began to fuse, it began also to cake,—thus threatening to
destroy not only the casting, but the whole furnace, with
untold danger to life and limb. Six men had, in spite of the
oppressive heat and the ever-increasing glow of the furnace,
to take it by turns night and day incessantly to stir, with
long iron bars, the molten mass, lest it should adhere to the
VOL. I. K
129
Schwanthaler the sculptor, and his friend Lazarini, his
“right hand,” as he called him, who modelled the colossal
figure under his direction.
Though Schwanthaler was already attacked by his fatal
malady at the time when he designed the Bavaria at the
king’s suggestion, he not only modelled a variety of designs
for the Colossus, but also completed a smaller figure of the
Bavaria as we now see her, thirteen feet high. When
the huge wooden tower was built in the Royal Bronze
Foundry, and after what may be called a gigantic wooden
skeleton had been erected by a crowd of carpenters,—after
tons and tons of clay had been piled together over this, so
as to form a mass of material on which to work,—there,
day after day, might be seen the unwearied, energetic,
though physically suffering sculptor, guiding with watch-
fulness and love the accomplishment of his idea, which
ever grew beneath the hand of his friend Lazarini and his
troop of workmen.
Stiglmayer, the originator and director of the Bronze
Foundry, died in 1844, just before the casting of the
Bavaria began. His nephew, Ferdinand Miller, full of
youth, energy, patience, and experience, was ready to
succeed him. The castings took place at five different
times,—commencing with the head. This was cast in
1844. In casting the bust of the figure—the largest
portion—the greatest difficulty had to be encountered. It
was necessary to melt for the purpose twenty tons of
bronze,—five tons more than had ever before been melted
in the furnace. As this immense mass of metal slowly
began to fuse, it began also to cake,—thus threatening to
destroy not only the casting, but the whole furnace, with
untold danger to life and limb. Six men had, in spite of the
oppressive heat and the ever-increasing glow of the furnace,
to take it by turns night and day incessantly to stir, with
long iron bars, the molten mass, lest it should adhere to the
VOL. I. K