Johann Baptist Zimmermann

1680 – 1758

German painter and stuccoist, brother of Dominikus Zimmermann, an architect. The two brothers worked together on several churches and other buildings in Bavaria, including the Nymphenburg Palace and the Residenz in Munich. Their main work is the pilgrims' church (1745-54) in Wies near Steingaden. Johann Baptist Zimmermann grew up in the arts and crafts milieu of Wessobrunn, which is famous for its school of stucco-work. He received his training as a painter in Augsburg. It appears that he worked as a stuccoer until 1720. As a fresco painter he often collaborated with his brother Dominikus, an architect. While in other European countries fresco-painting was already in decline in the first half of the 18th century, it still flourished in southern Germany. Belonging to the same generation as Asam, Zimmermann (with his brother) was the leading master of the early Bavarian Rococo. In his ceiling decorations he abandoned the illusionist element and introduced terrestrial zones around the edges so that the open vault of heaven is framed by bucolic or idyllic landscape scenes (Hofkirche St Michael in Berg am Laim, Munich, 1739; Great Hall in Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich, 1757). Architectural elements, ornament and picture merge along the borders. The high point of his art is the decoration of the Wieskirche, one of his brother's late works, where Zimmermann achieved an overall perfection in his handling of colour and design.

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