Sculpture-Augmented Frescoes at Würzburg Residenz

Last summer (2023) I toured Würzburg's Residenz, the palace of the Prince-Bishop when the area was a unit of the Holy Roman Empire.  Its Wikipedia entry is here.

Its artistic highlights regarding painting are the huge ceiling frescos by the great
Giovani Battista Tiepolo.  The present post features the fresco in the Treppenhaus. This link notes:

"... in the great vaulted ceiling over the Treppenhaus - at 7287 square feet (677 square metres) one of the largest expanses ever to have been covered in fresco - the theme was "Allegory of the Planets and Continents."  This monumental mythological painting, which occasionally encroaches onto architectural elements below, extends over a flattened basket vault that spans a complex arrangement of flights and landings.  It shows the Four Continents beneath a central Heaven presided over by an art-loving Apollo."

It's that encroaching that concerns us today.

Some encroaching items are sculptures that overlap the painting in places, becoming part of it when viewed from below.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the name of the sculptor or names of sculptors who did the work via Google and Bing searches.  Perhaps I didn't dig deeply enough.  As it was, the items searches turned up became increasingly less relevant, so I decided not to turn searching into a death march.

Below are some photos I took.

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Treppenhaus staircase and fresco.

Corner detail containing sculptures of two men.

Another corner, two more men.

A third corner.

Segment of the Kaisersaal fresco.  Note the sculpted dog.

A charming sculpture in the Kaisersaal -- French appearing, and likely related to springtime.  I saw the title and sculptor's name is a catalog at the Residenz gift shop, but didn't buy the book.  And now I can't find that information on the Internet.  If you can, help me out in a comment.

Some Rockefeller Center Sculptures

A faithful reader of this blog recently suggested that I write a post dealing with sculptures at New York City's Rockefeller Center.  Fine idea.  Below are images from when the center was new along with some color photos I took on various visits.

The style used by the various artists is what might today best be called Moderne or Art Deco.  In the 1930s when the work was done, the works were simply fashionable, up-to-date sculpting in tune with the architecture of the development.

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Architectural rendering of lower Rockefeller Plaza by John Wenrich, 1932.  At the time this was made, it seems that decisions regarding the sculpture at the fountain and the decorations over the entrance to the RCA Building behind it had not been made final.  So Wenrich probably used his imagination regarding those details.

"Prometheus" by Paul Manship - 1934 photo.

Prometheus in the foreground along with two adjoining works that are no longer present.  In the background is the main entrance area of the RCA Building with sculptural items by Lee Lawrie.

Closer, more recent view.

RCA Building entrance sculptures.

This is now called "Wisdom."  Originally it was "Genius."  Or more precisely, "Genius, Which Interprets to the Human Race the Laws and Cycles of the Universe, Making the Cycles of Light and Sound."

Flanking Genius are "Sound" (to the left) and "Light" (to the right, shown here).

Bronze Mercury on the British Empire Building, Lee Lawrie sculptor.

Also by Lawrie, but on the Maison Française, "Seeds of Good Citizenship," 1937.

Isamo Noguchi working on the full-scale plaster model of "News" for the Associated Press Building.

News being installed, 1940.

Bronze figures atop the main entrance to the British Empire Building, Carl Paul Jennewein sculptor.

Maison Française entrance bronze by Alfred Janiot.

Besides Prometheus, the best-known Rockefeller Center sculpture is "Atlas" at the front of the International Building, Lee Lawrie sculptor.

Atlas closeup.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens' New Hampshire Studio

I wrote about the Cornish, New Hampshire art colony home of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) in the previous post. His grounds are now held by the National Park Service. It's a little out of the way, but doable if you are also visiting the Dartmouth College area.

I'm not a sculptor, so can offer little commentary on the photos below that I took in September. Click on images to enlarge.

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Here is his studio, a large building a short distance from the house. The left-hand two thirds of the building is a large studio now displaying small examples of his work. On the side opposite, facing towards the northeast are large windows, mounted high.

This part of the building seems to have been used for preliminary studies.

Panning slightly to the left of the previous image. The objects displayed might not have been typical of what was actually going on while Saint-Gaudens was working here, though I can't rule out curators having photographic evidence.

Saint-Gaudens' office nook.

Study of figure for the Sherman statue ensemble at the Plaza corner of New York City's Central Park.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens' New Hampshire Home

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) was, in my opinion, one of America's greatest sculptors. I last wrote about him here.

In his later years, he lived in the Cornish art colony area of western New Hampshire. His house and grounds have been preserved, and now are operated by the U.S. National Park Service.

I visited the site in September and, of course, took some photos. Featured here are views of his house and its interior. Family members lived in the house until around 1919 when it was set up as a memorial, so what you see is probably fairly close to the way it was in Saint-Gaudens' time there. Interior decoration is not my field, so I leave it to you to interpret the various objects shown. There are also paintings and other works of art that appealed to him.

Click on images to enlarge.

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View of the house taken from the direction of his studio (the subject of a forthcoming post).

Living room.

Panning to the left.

Room across the hall.

Dining room.

A Small, Very Nice Saint-Gaudens Sculpture

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) was one of America's best sculptors -- regardless of era. His Wikipedia entry is here.

The Seattle Art Museum is woefully lacking in art of any kind from the 1800s and early 1900s. But it does have one small work by Saint-Gaudens. Its title is "Amor Caritas" (Love, Charity) -- bronze, lost wax cast.  It form can be classed as "high relief" where the subject is significantly rounded, yet still attached to its background.

For your viewing pleasure are a few photos I took of it recently.

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Exterior Wall Sculptures in Split

This is another post in an occasional series dealing with Art Nouveau architecture found in a number of smaller cities in Europe. I found the current subject in Split, Croatia -- a city with few examples of that style. What struck me was not the Vienna Secession version of Art Nouveau architecture, but the large metal sculptures populating the exterior: most sculpting associated with this kind of architecture is carved stonework or ceramic.

This 1903 building is called Sumporne Toplice ("Sulphur Spa"), located on the site of such a spring. The architect was Kamilo Tončić, but I have not been able to identify the sculptor.

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Establishment image: September 2011 Google view of Marnontova Ulica (Ulica, pronounced something like oo-litz-uh, is Croatian for "street").

Now for my photos.  The building is on the corner of Neretvankska Ulica, about a block from the outdoor Fish Market.  It needs some work -- note the small plants growing along the cornice.

The ground floor is nondescript, so this photo shows the sculptural action.  I'll focus on the lower tier of figures, so note here the higher works featuring faces, something more in line with Vienna Secession style.

Corner sculpting features men.

Whereas the main wall sculpting depicts women crying out.

Matching item seen from a slightly different angle.
There seem to be about four basic items that were cast several times each to create the ensembles.

Jacques de Lalaing: Sculptor Who Painted

Jacques de Lalaing (1858-1917), son of Belgian diplomat Count Maximilien de Lalaing and Bengal-born aristocrat Julie Ann Vibert, was born in London. He moved to Belgium in 1875 to pursue training and a career as a painter and sculptor. Being a sculptor, he probably had a better feel for anatomy than many painters. I deal with his paintings in this post.

Lalaing's English wikipedia entry is here, and his French entry is here.

However, the best source of information on him is this fine web site containing biographical information and many examples of his work.

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Les prisonniers de guerre - 1883
Painted when Lalaing was about age 25. I don't find it very impressive.

Justine de Monie - 1903 (pastel)
Lalaing made a number of highly detailed pastel portraits that, viewed digitally, are hard to distinguish from oil paintings. This was made the same year as the oil painting below, so it's possible that it is a study. On the other hand, the third link above has an example of a pastel that looks like the study of a head in an oil painting, but is dated a year later than the painting (the subject is Ghislaine de Caraman).

Justine de Monie - 1903 (oil on canvas)

Christine du Tour van Bellinchave - c.1893 (pastel)
Sister-in-law of the artist. It seems that this was damaged by a German shell (obus, in the web page text). More likely it was done by a shell fragment, probably in 1914 when the German army overran most of Belgium.

Christine du Tour van Bellinchave
This photo was probably used by Lalaing as reference for the clothing and the pose. Christine's face differs in liveliness and attractiveness -- photographic portraits were often stiff affairs in the 19th century.

Christine du Tour van Bellinchave - 1906
A later portrait, very nicely done.

Berthe Baeyens-Puissant - 1904 (pastel)

Général Donny - 1913
Lalaing also portrayed men.

Hélène de Burlet - 1894 (pastel)

Julie Ann Vibart, the artist's mother

Cécile Gilson de Rouvreux - 1913 (pastel)
A work made shortly before the war and ill health curtailed Lalaing's career.