Pulpit

Most "Bavarian" of all the stucco-workers from Wessobrunn, the architect and sculptor Zimmermann spent his whole life building rural churches, and died in Wies. This pilgrimage church and the one at Steinhausen are his masterpieces, achieving a poetic rendering of space and responding to a popular demand for enchantment and religious euphoria. The pulpit, executed with the collaboration of J. and F. Steinhauser, is one of the most striking manifestations of Bavarian fantasy and illustrates the metamorphosis of the weightier religious Baroque style into the lilting, musical forms of the Rococo.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 19 minutes): Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme