Search Results

(b Türkheim, bapt April 15, 1688; d Augsburg, April 2, 1762).

German painter, teacher, draughtsman and printmaker. His frescoes and altarpieces and his teaching established him as the dominant figure in the art life of Augsburg in the earlier 18th century. He came from a family of well-known Swabian sculptors, cabinetmakers and painters, with whom he probably initially trained. The Bavarian Duke Maximilian Philip paid for him to study (1702–8) with the Munich court painter Johann Andreas Wolff, after which he was summoned by the Elector of the Palatinate to decorate the court church of St Hubertus in Düsseldorf (1708–9; destr.). In 1710 or 1712 Bergmüller frescoed the church of Kreuzpullach, near Wolfratshausen. In his request for permission to marry and for mastership in Augsburg in 1712, he referred to an otherwise undocumented stay in the Netherlands. He settled permanently in the Imperial Free City in 1713 and attended its Reichstädtische Kunstakademie from 1715. From this time he rose to become the most influential painter and teacher in Augsburg, with apprentices coming from beyond the city, including ...

(b Speyer, 1709; bur; Mannheim, Dec 21, 1760).

German painter, draughtsman and etcher. Trained by Johann Georg Dathan (1703–c. 1748) in Speyer, he was a court painter in Mannheim from 1733 until his death, from 1755 gallery director and from 1757 a privy councillor. Of the religious works that, as a court painter, he was obliged to produce, the only ones that survive are frescoes (spandrel paintings) depicting the Four Quarters of the World (after 1748; Mannheim, former Jesuit church of SS Ignaz und Franz Xavier) and ceiling paintings in Electress Elizabeth Augusta’s library in Schloss Mannheim.

Brinckmann’s landscapes show two opposing trends. On the one hand, there are small, detailed picturesque landscapes in courtly or rural settings with suitable accessories, often with many figures. According to the terms of his contract, he had to produce two such paintings each year; typical examples are the Court Gardens at Mannheim (1745) and Wolfbrunnens near Heidelberg...

[Carlo Amedeo; Carlo Antonio]

(b Susa, Piedmont, 1715; d Turin, 1804).

Italian architect, engraver and military engineer. He was a follower of Bernardo Antonio Vittone, the last leading exponent of the Baroque in Turin and Piedmont in the 18th century; both men inherited the traditions of Guarino Guarini (ii) and Filippo Juvarra and were active until the Neo-classical revival of the latter part of the century. Rana also taught mathematics at the artillery school in Turin from 1739 to 1780, and published texts on military architecture and a collection of stage designs (see A. E. Brinkmann: Theatrum novum Pedemontii, Turin, 1931). In the field of architecture he is best known for one major work, the beautiful, richly decorated parish church of SS Michele e Salutore del Rosario (c. 1763–c. 1781) in Strambino, Piedmont. Rana’s masterpiece was the result of a competition in which Vittone also submitted a proposal. Rana’s design appears to owe comparatively little directly to Vittone, although it belongs to the rich Piedmontese Baroque tradition. His involvement in the project extended to the smallest details, and his drawings survive in the parish archives. The church has a severe and imposing exterior, with a classical façade contrasting strongly with the rich, dynamic and spatially complex interior. Designed as a succession of spaces of contrasting form and scale, the interior has varying plan shapes and ceiling heights, although the overall axial progression towards the altar and reliquary chapel is strongly maintained....

(b Florence, c. 1691; d ?Florence, June 27, 1741).

Italian architect and engraver. He was an assistant to Carlo Fontana, for whom he prepared drawings for the Palazzo Capponi (completed c. 1710), Florence. His first major commission was the remodelling of the façade (from c. 1715) of the oratory church of S Filippo Neri (or Chiesa Nuova), Florence, which forms part of the group of buildings known as S Firenze, owned by the Oratorians. The church had been begun in 1668 by Pierfrancesco Silvani, and Ruggieri’s façade has a strong Baroque form, with flanking pairs of Corinthian columns and a prominent segmental pediment. The uppermost parapet, featuring reversed halves of segmental pediments, is rich and complex, as is the entrance portal. The central element of the three-part façade, fronting the monastery, was designed later by Zanobi del Rosso (1724–98), who also duplicated Ruggieri’s church façade at the eastern end (1772–5) to provide a symmetrical composition. In ...

(b Rome, 1668; d Rome, Nov 16, 1729).

Italian architect, urban planner and engraver. He studied architecture in the studio of Carlo Fontana and assisted in the construction of Fontana’s chapel of St Fabian (c. 1706) in S Sebastiano fuori le Mura in Rome. From at least 1684 he produced sets of architectural engravings. Many of these were published by Giovanni Giacomo de’ Rossi and his son Domenico de’ Rossi (fl 1684–1721), including 52 engravings for Quarto libro del nuovo teatro di palazzi di Roma (Rome, 1699; see fig.); some of the original plates are housed in the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome. Domenico de’ Rossi’s Studio d’architettura civile (1702–21) provides an architectural record of the city of Rome in 286 plates engraved by Specchi.

Specchi became a member of the congregation of the Virtuosi al Pantheon in 1702 and entered the Accademia di S Luca in 1711, only to be expelled and readmitted nine years later. By ...