BARTHEL, Melchior

(b. 1625 Dresden, d. 1672 Dresden)

German sculptor, ivory-carver and master builder. He probably started his training with his father, the sculptor Hieronymus Barthel (active 1625-c. 1640), and completed his apprenticeship (1640-45) with Johann Boehme (d. 1667). There are records of various journeys he made to Augsburg, Ulm, Venice and Rome.

He lived in Venice for 17 years, during which time he made sculptures for the tomb of Doge Giovanni Pesaro (1669; Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice), based on a design by Baldassare Longhena, a statue of St John the Baptist (Scalzi, Venice), a Crucifix (San Bartolomeo, Venice) and a mourning female figure for the tomb of the painter Melchiore Lanza (Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice).

From Venice, Barthel returned to Dresden, where he was appointed court sculptor in 1670. No large works are known from his time in Dresden. His works in ivory include copies (Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden) of groups from Classical antiquity. No evidence of his work as a master builder has survived.

St John the Baptist

This statue was sculpted and signed c. 1660 for the altar of the Mora Chapel in the church of the Scalzi (church of Santa Maria di Nazareth). The St John manifests a Northern style true to the artist’s origins and artistic background. In an unusual compositional solution, the statue is in a niche that consists of a flat surface and a rocky background. The figure is rendered on an even footing with these landscape elements and the face and every detail is carved with a realistic meticulousness of Northern stamp and undoubted expressive effect, making it a landmark n Venetian sculpting of the time.

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Truth and Justice

This sculptural group was executed for the Monument to Doge Giovanni Pesaro, designed by Baldassare Longhena. Giovanni Pesaro (1589-1659) was the 103rd Doge of Venice, reigning from his election in 1658 until his death.

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