TROGER, Paul

Paul Troger belonged to a group of decorative painters which grew up under the influence of Andrea Pozzo in Vienna. Pozzo was called to Vienna to decorate the university church and the Lichtenstein palace. Troger settled in Vienna in 1728 and became one of the best representatives of the Viennese Rococo painting. He alloyed successfully the Italian (Venetian and Neapolitan) traditions with the ideas of contemporary Austrian painting. He became director of the Academy of Art in Vienna. His pupils included Maulbertsch.

The scene represents an event from the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament. Tobit, who is old and blind, reclines in a chair, while his son Tobias rubs an ointment made of fish’s gall into his eyes. Tobias has brought this ointment back from his journey, and it is supposed to restore his father’s sight. Tobias is guided in administering the ointment by the archangel Raphael, who accompanied him on his journey and returned with him to his father’s house.

The painting exhibits the features which Troger took over from the Italian masters and developed into his own style, with its characteristic bold chiaroscuro, expressive gestural language of the hands and fascinating symbolism of colour and light.

The cult of St Sebastian, who was probably a victim of Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians, is documented in early Christian writings and has an unbroken tradition through to the 20th century. The scene Troger has chosen for his altarpiece refers to the legend that tells how Sebastian, Commander of the Praetorian Guard, was shot by archers on the orders of the emperor and later nursed back to health by the Christian Irene, widow of St Castulus the martyr. When he later continued to express his Christian faith, he was beaten to death,

Troger’s Sebastian is not the youthful hero of Baroque paintings. There is no radiant certainty of salvation here. Instead, we see a wretched scene of suffering that does not even have the historic pathos of a key event. What is happening here is shown in a shabby secluded setting, far from the public eye. With pragmatic energy, a young woman is untying him, while Irene gently draws an arrow from his body. The suffering of his martyrdom is as tangible as the suffering of any sick neighbour. The assistance is so pragmatic and utterly unheroic that the spectator perceives it as a natural action. In this way, Christianity is shown as a faith that can be applied to daily life.

Paul Troger was one of the outstanding Austrian painters of the period. As compared with the German painters the colouring used by these Austrian artists is brighter, more joyful and more voluptuous. Troger decorated the monasteries of G�ttweig, Melk, Altenburg and Zwettle, and he influenced Franz Anton Maulbertsch, the most gifted painter of the period.

The scene of the Annunciation can be found on the ceiling of the nave.