Lüftlmalerei (also spelt ''Lüftelmalerei'') is a form of mural art that is native to villages and towns of southern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, especially in

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat of the district gove ...

( Werdenfelser Land) and in the

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

Style

The origin of the term is disputed but may have come from the name of the home of façade artist, Franz Seraph Zwinck (1748–1792) of

Oberammergau Oberammergau is a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, Germany. The small town on the Ammer River is known for its woodcarvers and woodcarvings, for its NATO School, and around the world for its 380-year tradition of ...

, ''Zum Lüftl''. Lüftlmalerei is a popular, folk-oriented variation of ''

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

'' from the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

and imitates architectural elements. As in 'high architecture' it also embeds pictorial cartouches, mirrors and fields. Its subject matter ranges from the patron saints of houses or house emblems to representations of Biblical stories and the classical motifs of peasant art from everyday rural life to hunting. Banners with mottos are common and the

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

is also a popular element. The paintings are applied to the fresh lime plaster using a

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

technique, whereby the colours silicify with the plaster in a chemical reaction and the paintings are thus able to survive for a long time. Today, other weatherproof painting materials are also used.

Architectural examples

Lindau Rathaus Malerei über dem Portal.JPG, Rathaus portal at Lindau (Bodensee) Mittenwald luftmalerei R0012260.jpg, Mittenwald, detail Mittenwald 2 - 26.05.2006.JPG, Mittenwald, Ballenhausgasse 12, ''Beim Gschdoaga'' Mittenwald - 26.05.2006.JPG, Mittenwald, Obermarkt 45, ''Südtiroler Stubn'' Marktplatz Neubeuern1.jpg, Neubeuern market place, county of Rosenheim Koenig-Otto-Str.1 Kiefersfelden-1.jpg, Kiefersfelden, Bauernhaus Lüftelmalerei Samerberg.jpg, Samerberg, Bauernhaus Zum-husaren-garmisch.jpg, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, ''Zum Husaren'' Lueftel.JPG, Berchtesgaden, ''Hirschhaus'' Lüftlmalerei.JPG, Feldkirchen in Kärnten, painting above the entrance of an old bakery Thuringia BadLiebenstein asv2020-07 img08 Villa Feodora.jpg, Bad Liebenstein, Villa Feodora Prien Stettnerhaus.jpg, The Stettner House in Prien am Chiemsee, village of "Am Gries"

Literature

* Herbert Meider, Franz Stoltefaut: ''Lüftlmalerei an Isar, Partnach, Loisach und Ammer''. Medien-Verlag Schubert, 2003, . * Paul Ernst Rattelmüller: ''Lüftlmalerei in Oberbayern.'' Süddeutscher Verlag, München 1981.

External links

Lüftlmalerei in Mittenwald (with numerous illustrations)
* Julia Ricker
''Bilderbuchdörfer. Die hohe Kunst der Lüftlmalerei in Mittenwald und Oberammergau''.
In: ''Monumente Online'', June 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Luftlmalerei Painting techniques Murals Baroque Culture of Altbayern Tyrolean culture