FEUCHTMAYER, Joseph Anton
(b. 1696, Wessobrun, d. 1770, Wessobrun)

Interior with stucco decoration

1748-50
Photo
Unsere Liebe Frau, Birnau

Ornamental exuberance, the sumptuous interplay of soaring pilasters, undulating cartouches, and architectural elements which soar upwards, represents the astonishing ornamental flamboyance of German Rococo of the southwest. Rococo ornament of this kind achieves new heights of extravagance in the pilgrimage church of the Virgin at Birnau, on Lake Constance, the "Hall of God." Feuchtmayer's work as a sculptor and stuccoist effectively defines the characteristic Rococo manner of Upper Swabia in Birnau. Using as his canvas the architecture of Peter Thumb (1681-1766) of Vorarlberg, he composed an incomparable work of art (1748-50).

The relatively wide windows of the church allow plenty of light into the interior illuminating even the rocaille cartouches that are concealed in various nooks and crannies. The balustrade around the galleries, repeatedly interrupted by small-scale ornamentation that seems almost overflow from its setting, dissolves into curved interlaced forms in the midst of this controlled undulation and surging of tumbling paths of cloud and burgeoning plaster branches, putti are seen peeking out, half concealed by the plasterwork, or stepping out unexpectedly beside an altar, among them the famous putto shown licking honey.

Above, the space opens on an imposing ceiling painting by the Moravian painter Gottfried Bernhard Goetz (1708-1774). relays of pilasters lead the viewer's gaze toward the choir, curving upwards into groin arches that delimit the painting while providing illusionary supports for the painted cornice, from which marbled double columns soar into a sky formed by a swirling vortex of clouds. At the top seats the Virgin as the woman of the apocalypse on a crescent moon, casting the vermin of hell into the deep.