HANN, Sebestyén
(b. 1644, Lőcse, d. 1713, Nagyszeben)

Biography

Hungarian silversmith. He worked in Nagyszeben (now Sibiu, Romania) from 1675 and made c. 100 works. His first commissions came from Saxon patricians in Transylvania: cups and chalices donated or offered as official gifts to different evangelical churches, and luxury objects, such as jugs, goblets and items of jewellery. The majority of the pieces combine figurative with decorative composition, and Hann based his ornamental repertory on Renaissance and Baroque styles. His preference for using historical and heroic themes on cups and goblets had as its source the engravings of Matthäus Merian (1593-1650). Another source was the engravings of Dürer, which inspired his design for the cup of rhinoceros horn (1694; Sibiu, Brukenthal Museum).

Hann's virtuosity in the shaping of objects, together with his accomplished technique and his able use of the contrast of light and shadow, led to the creation of such remarkable objects as the chalice (1690-94) made for the evangelical church in Luna de Jos, the Frankenstein candlesticks (1691), the ciborium of Cisnadie (1692) and the relief work for the Saxon Valentin Franck (1697; all Sibiu, Brukenthal Museum). He also received important commissions from the princes of Wallachia, including an oil lamp given to the Sarindar Monastery (1687) and two ornamentations of the Gospels, one donated by Constantine Brâncoveanu to the Metropolitan of Bucharest (1693) and the other to Hurezi Monastery (1709; all Bucharest, National Museum of Art). The figurative decoration of these pieces follows the iconography of the Eastern Church, with details from the Western repertory.



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