The Prodigal Son Living with Harlots

religious

In his small painting depicting the biblical tale about the prodigal son Baumgartner not only used the rocaille as a frame, but as a motif in itself. The rocaille, a type of ornament typical of the Rococo, winds its way into the architectural setting of the scene, dissolving stone niches and intermingling with the balustrade.

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About the Artist

Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner

1702 – present

German painter and etcher. He was born in Tyrol and he learned glass painting in Salzburg. He moved to Augsburg and worked as a glass painter. The ceiling painting in the Sanctuary of the Holy Cross of the former Klosters Mountains is considered as his largest and most important work. Posterity knows this versatile artist as a creator of large-scale decorative work for churches where frescoes merge seamlessly with the Rococo architecture of the altarpieces. Baumgartner was also a prolific supplier of drawn and painted images for the major printmakers in the city of Augsburg.

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