Church
According to the German art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, "the abbey church of Wilhering is the most brilliant achievement of the Rococo style in the German-speaking world." It gives the impression that more decoration, colour, sculptures, paintings and stuccowork could not be found in a single place. The Baroque dream that heavenly light-heartedness and timeless happiness can be brought down to earth, a dream which in the Rococo period reached its nearly unrestrained climax, has come true at Wilhering. Moreover, all the individual elements are in harmony and seem to be connected in some way: the altars, the pulpit, the two organs, the choir stalls, the putti and the frescoes with numerous saints, with clouds and blue sky. These artists had a uniform feeling for style and taste.
The ground-plan of the present church is the same as that of the old church from before 1733. Johann Haslinger, a little known master mason from Linz, was entrusted with the building supervision by Abbot Hinterhölzl. This abbot engaged various freelance artists to carry out the programme for the decoration, which is recorded in a banderol in the ceiling fresco of the chancel: "Assumpta est Maria in caelum, gaudent angeli".
The well-known Baroque painter Martino Altomonte, who was over eighty during this commission, created the altar-pieces within six years. According to a Cistercian custom, the high altar-piece is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The two anterior altar-pieces, placed nearest to the high altar, refer to Mary’s work in the Benedictine (left) and Cistercian (right) Orders. The pictures on the two middle altars show the death of Saint Joseph (left) and the guardian angel (right). Both altar-pieces at the back are dedicated to the Fourteen Holy Helpers (die Vierzehn Nothelfer): the holy virgins to the left and the intercessors for agriculture to the right. The paintings represent Late Baroque Italian Classicism.
The fresco painter was Martino Altomonte’s son, Bartolomeo. Although he was a lesser artist, he directed the greatest attention to frescoing the ceilings. In a way it was Bartolomeo’s endeavour to create a perfect heavenly illusion, the desire to create a "new Heaven", according to Saint John’s vision in the Book of Revelation. According to the abbot’s wish, the frescoes had to be similar to those of the abbey at Spital am Pyhrn, showing Mary ascending to the glory of Heaven. The angels, the whole world and the saints of Heaven were to take part in Our Lady’s triumph, assumption and coronation. Bartolomeo Altomonte succeeded in painting a fresco of more than 450 m2 (approximately 540 square yards). This extensive ceiling fresco is characteristic of the specific atmosphere in the church. The painting mainly shows saints related to the Cistercian Order, who are arranged in groups. The transition from fresco to plastic decoration is fluid. The richly gilded frames of stucco take up the liveliness of the picture and pass it on to the periphery of the vault. The transept shows frescoes praising the Virgin Mary in an allegorical manner. The idea is that grace will be heaped upon those who venerate Mary, and that all continents are united with her by the virtues of faith, hope and charity.
The fresco in the flat cupola of the crossing is a combined work by the Italian painter of architectural perspective, Messenta, and Altomonte. The picture is an allegory of Mary’s triumph over sin and the sinner’s due punishment, symbolized by mankind chained to the globe. The frescoes in the presbytery and below the organ-loft show angels playing musical instruments in honour of the Queen of Heaven. The fresco in the Grundemann Chapel is complementary to the altar-piece of the chapel, whose subject is the wiping out of the original sin by Christ’s redeeming blood. In the centre of the fresco there is the Christ Child being offered the instruments of Christ's Passion.
The Austrian stuccoer Franz Josef Holzinger of Sankt Florian was commissioned to do the stucco work (1739-1741). However, he was forced to interrupt his work by the War of the Austrian Succession, and his commission was later discontinued, as his stuccoing was unsatisfactory. The work was continued by the Augsburg-born master stuccoers, Johann Michael Feichtmayr and Johann Georg Ueblherr, two members of the Wessobrunn School. They applied the then highly admired and fashionable rocaille cartouche ornamentation, redecorated Holzinger’s stuccoing with great skill, created the lively curved retables surrounding the large altar-pieces, and fashioned the pulpit as well as the casing of the choir organ. They also furnished the continuous main cornice with red stuccoed marble and all the pilasters with the same material in an elegant grey. Moreover, Ueblherr himself created the sixteen life-sized statues of saints for the altars, the figures of the Holy Trinity above the high altar, the statue of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the most famous abbot of the Cistercians, for the sounding-board of the pulpit and the royal harpist David above the choir organ. It was also Feichtmayr and Ueblherr who placed the numerous glazed stucco putti and angels’ heads throughout the church.
They sent for the gilder Johann Georg Frueholz of Munich, who was known to them, to provide the final gloss to the interior of the church by gilding it abundantly. In the meantime two lay-brothers of Wilhering, Eugen Dymge and Johann Baptist Zell, carved the choir-stalls and the pews.
The choir organ, a counterpart of the pulpit, was made in 1746 by Nikolaus Rumel the elder. The famous Austrian composer Anton Bruckner counted it among his favourites. The main organ, with its Baroque casing, is the decorative highlight at the back of the church. It was made in 1883 by Leopold Breinbauer and now has thirty-eight stops.
The essential work of decorating and furnishing was completed in 1748. At that time the monastery’s debts amounted to 122,000 Austrian Florins, a sum equivalent to the value of 10,000 cows.
The mystery of this abundantly and solemnly decorated space lies in the interplay of many single decorative elements. The beauty displayed here is likely to disclose itself best to those who do not analyse the details, but appreciate the whole interior in its entirety.
The latest overall restoration of the church took place between 1971 and 1977 under the artistic direction of Prof. Fritz Fröhlich.
Read more about this topic: Wilhering Abbey
Famous quotes containing the word church:
“The Church seems to totter to its fall, almost all life extinct. On this occasion, any complaisance would be criminal which told you, whose hope and commission it is to preach the faith of Christ, that the faith of Christ is preached.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If church prelates, past or present, had even an inkling of physiology they’d realise that what they term this inner ugliness creates and nourishes the hearing ear, the seeing eye, the active mind, and energetic body of man and woman, in the same way that dirt and dung at the roots give the plant its delicate leaves and the full-blown rose.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“The tavern will compare favorably with the church. The church is the place where prayers and sermons are delivered, but the tavern is where they are to take effect, and if the former are good, the latter cannot be bad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)