Franz Joseph Spiegler
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Ceiling frescoes in Zwiefalten Münster

Franz Joseph Spiegler (* 5 April 1691 in Wangen im Allgäu; † 15 April 1757 in Konstanz) was a German Baroque painter. He is best known for his frescoes, which decorate many of the churches and monasteries along the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. The frescoes in the Zwiefalten Abbey are considered his masterpiece.^[1]

Spiegler was the son of a district court attorney in the Free Imperial City of Wangen im Allgäu. After the death of his father in 1692, his mother married the painter Adam Joseph Dollmann, a member of an old patrician family in Wangen. This was Spiegler's first introduction to the arts. Around 1710 Spiegler began training as a painter in Munich under the tutelage of his great-uncle, the Bavarian court painter Johann Kaspar Sing. During the course of his studies, Spiegler also became acquainted with the historical painting in vogue with the Dutch painters of the time. From 1723 to 1725 Spiegler painted frescoes in the Ottobeuren Abbey that show the strong influence of the Italian painter Jacopo Amigoni (1682–1752). Later he also created frescoes and oil paintings for numerous monasteries, churches, and castles in the regions of Upper Swabia, Lake Constance, the Black Forest, and the Upper Rhine. In 1757 Spiegler died in Konstanz.

Major Works

Ceiling fresco depicting St. Augustine's reception into heaven from the Augustinian Church of the Holy Trinity in Konstanz

Baden-Württemberg

• Altheim (near Riedlingen)—Parish Church of St. Martin (1747) (frescoes and three oil paintings)
• Bad Säckingen—Covent Church of St. Fridolin (1753–1754) (frescoes)
• Bonndorf— Schloss Bonndorf (1726) (fresco)
• Gossenzugen—Chapel (ca. 1749) (frescoes)
• Konstanz—Augustinian Church of the Holy Trinity (Dreifaltigkeitskirche) (1740) (frescoes)
• Mainau—Castle chapel (1737–1738) (frescoes)
• Merdingen—Parish Church of St. Remigius (1739–1741) (frescoes and altar paintings)
• Mochental—Castle chapel (1734) (fresco)
• St. Peter im Schwarzwald—St. Peter's Abbey in the Black Forest (1727; 1739) (frescoes)
• Salem—Cistercian Abbey Church (1730) (ceiling frescoes in the transepts and the organ loft)
• Stühlingen—Monastery Church of Maria Loreto (1740–1741) (four side altar paintings and upper galleries)
• Untersulmetingen—Chapel in Schloss Untersulmetingen (frescoes and oil paintings)
• Weingarten—Benedictine Monastery Church of St. Martin of Tours and St. Oswald (1783) (oil painting on side altar)
• Zwiefalten—Zwiefalten Münster (1728–1729; 1747–1753) (frescoes)

Bavaria

• Hergatz—Parish Church of Maria Thann (1722–1723) (frescoes)
• Lindau—Cathedral "Unserer Lieben Frau" (1736) (fresco)
• Ottobeuren—Benedictine Monastery Church of the Holy Trinity and monastery buildings (1723–1725) (frescoes in the corridors and stairways and in the secret archives of the abbot, the ceiling fresco of Comedy and Tragedy in the theater)

Switzerland

• Muri—Benedictine Abbey of St. Martin of Tours (1746) (five oil paintings for the high altar and side altar paintings)

Gallery

Interior of St. Peter's Abbey in the Black Forest

Interior of the Zwiefalten Abbey

Interior of Muri Abbey, showing high altar painted by Spiegler

References

Bibliography

• Bruno Bushart. Franz Joseph Spiegler. Versuch einer Positionsbestimmung. In: Eduard Hindelang (Ed.). Franz Anton Maulbertsch und sein schwäbischer Umkreis. Sigmaringen: Museum Langenargen, 1996. ISBN 3-7995-3165-3. pp. 87–114.
• Raimund Kolb. Franz Joseph Spiegler, 1691-1757. „Barocke Vision über dem See“. Erzähltes Lebensbild und wissenschaftliche Monographie. Bergatreute: Eppe, 1991. ISBN 3-89089-019-9.

External links

• Franz Joseph Spiegler in the German National Library catalogue