BALTHASAR NEUMANN

Johann Balthasar Neumann was born in 1687. He grew up in the German part of Bohemia, where he had a good opportunity to get acquainted with the churches in the style of the Italian Baroque. Balthasar came from a bourgeois family - his father was a businessman. Neiman received extensive education, has seen the light and the beginning of his architectural career, served as an artillery engineer. He also traveled to France. It is known that his library was a book Guarini "Civil Architecture", which contained the major projects Guarini.

Neiman worked mainly in the north of Bavaria, in Wurzburg, the seat Franconian bishops. He was in the service of graphs Shenbornskih. In 1719 here at the residence of a rich and powerful bishop Johann von Schönborn laid the foundation for building, construction of which lasted for twenty-five years and which, together with the Berlin Palace and the Zwinger was destined to become the most prominent monument of the German architecture of the early XVIII century. In Würzburg palace no severe power structures Schluter, and no unrestrained splendor Peppelmana masterpiece.

Photo — «Balthasar Neumann»

Neumann sought to give his creation features a majestic restraint and noble clarity.

Overlooking the park 167 meters facade stretched in a line, even both ends are de-emphasized projection in the facade, as is often found in palaces, but only emphasized by pilasters and flat gables. The middle part of the building, moderately decorated, and several advanced, too, does not violate the quiet, unhurried rhythm of the facade. Login processed stringent Tuscan order columns, and only the high windows of the second floor are stucco decorations to form a transition to a smart picturesque third, of the upper floors and elegant figure pediment, crowning this part of the facade.

Outdoor Courtyard Würzburg palace its active coverage of the space resembles the courtyard of Versailles. Speakers porticos side wings create a vibrant movement in depth, to the yard facade of the main building, a squat and thick than park facade, adorned with heavy and ornate pediment with heraldic figures.

From the spacious lobby on the second floor of the palace is a grand staircase - the most glorious and most impressive work of Neumann.

Photo — «Balthasar Neumann»

Architecture staircase occupies a special place in the masters′ works of the German Baroque. Biggest German architects in Berlin, Schluter, I. Dinttsenhofer in Pommersfeldene created their own, become famous, variants of the grand staircase. Neiman himself apart from the stairs in Würzburg created two masterpieces of this kind - in castles and Bruchsal Brühl. However, the most perfect work of masters - a majestic and easy, fast and gradually rises to the upper gallery staircase Würzburg palace.

It is interesting that Neumann had planned even two such symmetrically diverging from the lobby grand staircase. However, he was forced to abandon this plan on the advice of the architect Bofrana, which was supposed to show your project. In all probability, rational thinking French architect, master of intimate Rococo interiors, was supposed to appear impractical on such a scale.

Lightness and clarity of the architectural design ladder corresponds to the severity of the interior decoration - decoration staircase was made in the second half of the century, when German art began to affect classic trends.

Photo — «Balthasar Neumann»

In the 1750′s. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo decorated the ceiling of the stairs his paintings. A huge, about 650 square meters, the radiant ceiling by Tiepolo completes the ensemble of one of the finest architectural buildings of XVIII century.

With the palace in Wurzburg competing luxury finishes in Bruchsal Palace, the residence of Bishop shpeyerskogo and Brühl castle, which belonged to Elector of Cologne, which also gives an unusually splendid solutions hallways and grand staircase adorned with stucco decorations Stukov IM Fehtmayra. Neumann owned and many religious buildings. Most notable among them - the church in Firtsenheyligene and Neresheyme. Two-towered facade beautifully situated on a hill in the valley of the Main firtsenheyligenskoy church is similar to many church facades in southern Germany and other Catholic countries, but at the same time there is a remarkable grace and more than the original plan.

The wavy line of the facade gently bends easily ascend to the sky, slender tower. This feeling of mobility forms of amplified when the viewer enters the church.

Photo — «Balthasar Neumann»

The space of the central nave forms a complex picture in terms of a few which find each other ovals.

To adjoin the round in terms of side chapels. Available in pink and red artificial marble, gilt bases and capitals, a bright light coming through the large windows create a festive mood.

Church Firtsenheyligene not only in style but in spirit close palaces Neumann. It is enlightened, joyous and, in fact, a very secular. Clear on proportions, built on the mathematical calculation error-free church in Firtsenheyligene largely reflects the realistic outlook of its creator.

Church Firtsenheyligene was laid before the end of the Würzburg Residence, but finished only in 1772, almost twenty years after the death of the architect, who died on August 19, 1753.