- Asam brothers
The Asam Brothers (
Cosmas Damian Asam andEgid Quirin Asam ) were sculptors, workers in stucco, painters, and architects, who worked mostly together and in southern Germany. They are among the most important representatives of the German late Baroque.Life
Cosmas Damian Asam and his brotherEgid Quirin Asam were two of the nine children of Hans Georg Asam, the resident painter inBenediktbeuern Abbey . Both were apprentices under their father. After the death of his father in 1711, Cosmas Damian traveled toRome , sponsored by the abbot of Tegernsee, in order to receive further education there. Presumably his brother accompanied him on this trip.The works of
Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini made a profound impression on Cosmas Damian, and in 1713 he received the first prize of theAccademia di San Luca in the presence of the Pope. In 1716 Egid Quirin finished his training under the Munich court sculptorAndreas Faistenberger . After their return from Italy, the brothers received many commissions, thanks to their close ties to theOrder of St. Benedict .Both brothers followed in their father’s footsteps in their tendencies and training. Cosmas Damian worked as a painter and sculptor; Egid Quirin, as architect, stucco-worker, and sculptor. As their specialties complemented each other well for architectural assignments, they worked together on nearly all their commissions.
In particular, Cosmas Damian’s great talent for fresco painting quickly made a name for the brothers outside of the
Upper Palatinate . His frescoes were valued as highly as those of his Italian contemporary,Giovanni Battista Tiepolo .While the frescoes and stucco-works executed by the brothers in
Bamberg were still strongly characterized by a certain illusionism, they achieved in later works, such as those inWeingarten Abbey , a uniform interplay of individual elements that provided a stage-like setting for the Baroque church service. With the construction and organization of the influential church inWeltenburg Abbey , they assured their fame. According to the criteria of the late Baroque period, they succeeded in bringing together painting, sculpture, light, space, and architecture into a unified total work of art.While their architectural commissions ranged from
Bohemia to theTyrol andSwitzerland , from around 1727 both brothers resided inMunich . Their best known building is the Church of St. John Nepomuk, popularly known as the Asamkirche, in Munich, next to which they lived. This late work, wedged into an exceedingly small space and built without commission, served as a private chapel for the Asam brothers.References
* This article is based on the article "Brüder Asam" from German Wikipedia, where further information may be found.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.