Johann Joseph Würth

Johann Joseph Würth, also known as Jan Josef Würth (born 2 April 1706 in Vienna - died 30 September 1767 in Vienna) was an Austrian Silversmith of the period of late baroque style. He is best known for the silver tomb with statues upon the grave of John of Nepomuk in Prague.

Life

Coming from the famous family of silversmiths, he could enter the Viennese guild of goldsmiths, silversmiths and jewellers as Master in 1726, without practise. He worked before all on ecclesiastic silver, as monstrances, chalices or mass trays, often decorated with precious stones. His main work was to execute the silver tomb with statues upon the grave of Saint John of Nepomuk in the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle. He beat it using wooden models of Italian sculptor Antonio Corradini. It took him two years (1735 - 1736), his helpers were Raphael Donner and Caspar Gschwandtner, they all worked in Prague, because moving of such whole work wood be too expensive. This is the largest ecclesiastic silverwork in the Central Europe, surviving the Napoleonic wars. Later he worked for the pilgrim church of the Virgin Mary in Mariazell in (Styria, he erected there a silver altar, and bulkhead with grille. Between 1751 - 1754 he was elected the first chairman of the Viennese guild and later the senior guild master. He learned goldsmithwork his son Ignaz Würth.

Work

• Silver tomb with statues upon the grave of John of Nepomuk in Prague, (1735-1736)
• Sun monstrance for the St. Stephan Dom in Vienna (1751), now in Dom- and Diocesan Museum
• Silver altar in the church of Mariazell in Austria.

Literatura

• Waltraud NEUWIRTH: Wiener Silber Punzierung 1524 - 1780. Wien 2004, pp. 300-301.

Reference

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