STEINL, Matthias
Matthews Steinl (also Steindel, or Stinle), Austrian sculptor, architect, and engineer. He was one of the country’s best known Baroque sculptors, and, together with Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and his rival Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, he may be considered one of the most influential architects to introduce the High Baroque style to Austria.
He was trained as a craftsman and artist in Austria, although he may have learned to sculpt in the Netherlands and in Prague.
He was employed in the 1670s as a sculptor in Leubus Abbey in the Lower Silesia, where he took over the workshop of the deceased sculptor Matthias Knote, whose widow he married in 1677. Most of his works here were destroyed in World War II.
Steinl directed this workshop until 1682, when he moved to Breslau, where the prince-bishop recommended him to the court in Vienna. During his stay in Breslau he provided the sculptures on the high altar of Heinrichau Abbey (now Henryków). He also started as a designer sketching cartouches, garlands and tendrils.
In 1688 in Vienna he became the ivory engraver for the emperor. From this period dates the exceptional carving Allegory of the Elements water and air, made out of a walrus tusk (1688-90); and the ivory equestrian statues of Leopold I (1690-93) and Joseph I (1693). From the 1690s Steinl also directed an important sculpture workshop in Vienna that produced many religious objects.
Around 1688, Steinl became more interested in architecture. He was one of the first to use the Late Baroque style, in the manner of Francesco Borromini, in Austria, as architect of the church of Laxenburg, close to Vienna. It was built between 1693 and 1703 by Carlo Antonio Carlone and continued between 1703 and 1724 by Steinl. The rich Baroque façade of the Carmelite church in Sankt Pölten, Austria, was built by the Baroque architect Jakob Prandtauer, but Steinl seems to have been involved in the design.
His architectural designs were mostly realised by Josef Munggenast (1680-1741), nephew of Jakob Prandtauer.
Around this period Steinl seems to have ceased his direct participation in his sculpture workshop, but he still produced occasional pieces. He also continued to work as imperial ivory engraver until at least 1712, producing two further major works : the equestrian statuette of Emperor Charles VI (Schatzkammer, Vienna) and the portrait relief of the Bishop of Breslau Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg (Bavarian National Museum, Munich).
