Johann Melchior Dinglinger

In Dinglinger's portrait by Antoine Pesne, c. 1721, the entrepreneur, swathed in furs, displays his richly-mounted translucent chalcedony Dianabad (Hermitage, St Petersburg)

Johann Melchior Dinglinger (26 December 1664 6 March 1731) was one of Europe's greatest goldsmiths, whose major works for the elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong, survived in the Grünes Gewölbe (the "Green Vaults"), Dresden.[1] Dinglinger was the last goldsmith to work on the grand scale of Benvenuto Cellini and Wenzel Jamnitzer, fewer of whose large-scale works in precious materials have survived, however.[2] His work carries on in a Mannerist tradition into the "Age of Rococo".

Biography

Dinglinger was born in Biberach an der Riß (today in Baden-Württemberg). He served his apprenticeship in Ulm, after which he refined his techniques working as a journeyman in Augsburg, Nuremberg and Vienna, three traditional centers of luxury arts. He went to Dresden in 1692, where he spent the rest of his career in the service of Augustus, by whom he was appointed court jeweller in 1698. In the workshop he established, he was assisted by his younger brothers, the enameller Georg Friedrich Dinglinger (16661720) and Georg Christoph Dinglinger (16681728), who specialized in cutting and setting jewels. The sculptor Balthasar Permoser collaborated as a modeller in Dinglinger's workshops.

Dinglinger married five times[3] and had twenty-three children, of whom eleven survived to maturity. The famous house he erected in Dresden was burned in the Seven Years' War. He died in Dresden.

Works

Bath of Diana

Dinglinger's major works, all for Augustus:

References

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Notes

  1. Reopened in September 2004 in the Dresden Residenz, as the Neues Grünes Gewölbe.
  2. Later masters, like Carl Fabergé, were essentially miniaturists.
  3. Antoine Pesne's portrait of his fourth wife, Susanna Guterman (1698-1726), the pendant to the portrait illustrating this article, both painted to commemorate their marriage in 1721, is also at the Hermitage Museum.
  4. It will be recalled that Augustus was also the patron and main impetus behind the luxury production of the first European true porcelain, at Meissen. The solid gold of the Goldene Kaffeezeug cups would have efficiently transmitted the heat of coffee to scald a potential drinker's fingers.
  5. There are 5223 diamonds, 189 rubies, 175 emeralds, 1 sapphire, 53 baroque pearls.
  6. The project exemplifies the essential role played by long-term credit within the luxury trades of Early Modern Europe.
  7. One is now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (see ref. Walters) These cups were exhibited when the Grünes Gewölbe were opened to public viewing in 1722.
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