Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel (15 December 180421 January 1861) was a German
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
.
Life
Rietschel was born in
Pulsnitz
Pulsnitz () or Połčnica (Upper Sorbian) is a town in the district of Bautzen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the small river Pulsnitz, 11 km southwest of Kamenz, and 24 km northeast of the centre of Dresden.
...
in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
the third child of Friedrich Ehrgott Rietschel and his wife Caroline.
From the age of 20 he became an art student at
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, and from 1826 was a pupil of
Rauch in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. He there gained an art studentship, and studied in Rome in 1827–28. After returning to Saxony, he soon brought himself into notice by a colossal statue of
Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony; was elected a member of the academy of Dresden, and became one of the chief sculptors of his country. In 1832 he was elected to the Dresden professorship of sculpture, and had many foreign orders of merit conferred on him by the governments of different countries.
He died in Dresden in 1861 aged 56. He is buried in the Trinitatisfriedhof, north-east of the city centre.
Family
He married three times.
Firstly in 1832 to Albertine Trautscholdt. In 1836 he married Charlotte Carus daughter of
Carl Gustav Carus
Carl Gustav Carus (3 January 1789 – 28 July 1869) was a German physiologist and painter, born in Leipzig, who played various roles during the Romantic era. A friend of the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he was a many-sided man: a doctor, ...
. Finally in 1841 he married Marie Hand (1819–1847).
From the third marriage he had a son .
Style and sculptures
Rietschel's style was very varied; he produced works imbued with much religious feeling, and to some extent he occupied the same place as a sculptor that
Overbeck did in painting. Other important works by him were purely classical in style. He was specially famed for his portrait figures of eminent men, treated with much
idealism
In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ide ...
and dramatic vigour; among the latter class his chief works were colossal statues of
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
and
Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
for the a
monument in Weimar, of
Weber
Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'.
Notable pe ...
for Dresden and of
Lessing Lessing is a German surname of Slavic origin, originally ''Lesnik'' meaning "woodman".
Lessing may refer to:
A German family of writers, artists, musicians and politicians who can be traced back to a Michil Lessigk mentioned in 1518 as being a lin ...
for
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
cast by
Georg Howaldt. He also designed the
Luther Monument in
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
**Worms (electoral district)
*Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy
Arts and entertainme ...
, Germany, and created two of its many statues, but died before it was completed.
The principal among Rietschel's religious pieces of sculpture are the well-known Christ-Angel, and a life-sized Piet, executed for the king of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
. He also worked a great deal ''in rilievo'', and produced many graceful pieces, especially a fine series of
bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s representing "Night and Morning" and "Noon and Twilight".
Gallery
File:Das Rietschel Denkmal Pulsnitz - Sachsen - Marktplatz.jpg, Rietschel Monument Pulsnitz - Saxony - Market Square
Image:Braunschweig, Lessingdenkmal (Lessingplatz) (2).jpg, Lessing Monument (German: ''Lessing-Denkmal'') in Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
; cast by Georg Ferdinand Howaldt
Georg Ferdinand Howaldt (8 April 1802 – 19 January 1883) was a German sculptor.
Biography
Howaldt was born in Braunschweig as the son of the silversmith David Ferdinand Howaldt. He learned silversmithing and went to Nuremberg, where he b ...
.
File:Martin-luther.JPG, Luther Monument in Washington, D.C., copy of Rietschel's work in Worms.
Image:GoetheAndSchillerMonumentAtWeimar.jpg, Goethe–Schiller Monument
The original ''Goethe–Schiller Monument'' (German: ''Goethe-Schiller-Denkmal'') is in Weimar, Germany. It incorporates Ernst Rietschel's 1857 bronze double statue of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), ...
in Weimar.
Notes
References
*
External links
Ernst Rietschel
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rietschel, Ernst
1804 births
1861 deaths
People from Pulsnitz
People from the Electorate of Saxony
German sculptors
German male sculptors
19th-century sculptors
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts faculty