Biography

Austrian architect. He is famed chiefly for his monastic and religious buildings, notably the abbey and church of Melk. He was the son of a master mason, and he too learned the trade. He also studied sculpture and architecture, however, for by the time he was 19 he was working as a sculptor in Sankt Pölten, a city in Lower Austria not far from Vienna. By 1700 he was a master builder (Baumeister), working on many projects in Sankt Pölten.

From 1701 until his death Prandtauer worked for the monastery of Melk on the Danube in Lower Austria, totally rebuilding the church and all the buildings of the huge monastic complex, one of the largest of its kind. Like his great contemporaries Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, Prandtauer turned to Italianate forms for his inspiration, but, as did the others, he also introduced highly personal notes into his architecture.

While Melk remains his most famous creation, Prandtauer also built the beautiful pilgrimage church on the Sonntagberg (1706-28) and the monastery at Garsten near Steyr (1703-08), and he reconstructed the monastery of Sankt Florian near Linz, taking over the works from Carlo Antonio Carlone. There he built the grand staircase (1706-14) and the great hall (Marmorsaal; 1718-24). From 1708 on he was also in charge of works at Kremsmünster, and from 1720 at Herzogenburg, both monasteries. In every case, as was usually the practice during the period, Prandtauer not only was the architect but was actually in charge of all aspects of the construction and of the exterior and interior decoration of a project, his early training as a mason and a sculptor standing him in good stead in all these enterprises.

Prandtauer is often cited as an example of the local architect who, without training in Italy, nevertheless was able to create great buildings in the Baroque style, displaying a native inventiveness and imagination which brought his work to a level of quality equal to that of Fischer von Erlach and Hildebrandt, his more formally trained contemporaries.

When Prandtauer died on Sept. 16, 1726, at Sankt Pölten, most of his projects were still unfinished. They were completed by his pupil, assistant, and cousin Joseph Munggenast (1680-1741), whose famous tower at Dürnstein (1721-25) is thought to have been largely inspired by his master.