TIETZ, Adam Ferdinand

(b. 1708 Austria, d. 1777 Germany)

Adam Ferdinand Tietz (also Dietz), Austrian sculptor. He first worked in the workshop of his father who was sculptor of Prince Lobkowitz. Later on, he most probably went to Vienna and was influenced by the work of the Italian sculptor Lorenzo Mattielli (c. 1682-1748), who supplied statuary for palaces and churches.

In 1743, Ferdinand Tietz started working for Friedrich Carl von Schönborn at the Würzburg Residence. Since 1747 he was working in Bamberg for Archbishop Johann Philipp Anton von Franckenstein and since 1748 as a court sculptor under six bishops, including three from the house of Schönborn. Tietz’s work includes a significant number of sculptures, of which some are now in museums in Würzburg and Nuremberg. The garden sculptures in the garden of the Palace of Veitshöchheim and in Seehof Palace near Bamberg are regarded as Tietz’s major works. For Schloss Seehof and the residence garden in Bamberg, he created some 420 pieces: figures, animals and fountains.

The earliest pieces since his stay in Bamberg have been created until 1754 for the first scenography of the Seehof garden.

As the used limestone material is very sensitive, most of the pieces are not preserved anymore today or are not at their original location.

Mercury

As court sculptor in W�rzburg, Bamberg, and Trier, Adam Ferdinand Tietz was occupied mainly in producing garden figures of sandstone. At Seehof Palace near Bamberg, Tietz and his workshop had turned out four hundred statues by the time they finished work on the project.

The subject of this pieces was that of classical mythology, which outside the ecclesiastical realm enjoyed a considerable freedom of expression. Tietz’s numerous figures of Mercury illustrate the almost sunny lightness and sense of movement which typify his figures in the taste of the time.

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Parnassus

As court sculptor in W�rzburg, Bamberg, and Trier, Adam Ferdinand Tietz was occupied mainly in producing garden figures of sandstone.

The dramatic depiction of a classical subject in a dynamic, stylised pose is typical of South German Rococo garden sculpture. Its most prominent representative was Tietz, who adorned Franconian residences with engaging figures in symmetrical arrangements.

As the classical home of Apollo and the Muses, the Parnassus in the Great Lake of the prince-bishop’s summer residence at Veitsh�chheim is incorporated into the garden as nature enhanced by architecture.

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