SCHEFFAUER, Philipp Jakob

German sculptor. At high school in Stuttgart, he was a fellow student of Heinrich Dannecker. After completing his training, together with Dannecker, he was sent for further studies as court sculptor to Paris, where he was trained under Augustin Pajou. Then he spent four years in Italy. In his mature style, the refined elegance that he had absorbed from Pajou merged with a precision of form acquired from intense observation of ancient art.

After returning to Germany in 1789, he produced sculptures that are less sever in form and more delicate in sensibility than those of the paragon of Italian Neoclassical style, Antonio Canova.

Alongside his rival Heinrich Dannecker, Scheffauer worked almost exclusively for the court of Württenberg, carving busts of Duke Karl Eugen and prominent citizens, as well as creating decorations for castles around Stuttgart.

Compared to the highly productive Dannecker, Scheffauer produced relatively few works. The most distinctive are small, exquisitely carved reliefs - often illustrating tales from antiquity - intended for the intimate chambers favoured in private residences during this period. He produced also reliefs for tombs in Stuttgart cemetery.