1724 -1796 · Late Austrian Baroque, visionary fresco and expressive rococo

Bright lights, weightless crowds, expressive faces and delicate colors give Maulbertsch a unique place in Central European Baroque.

Franz Anton Maulbertsch was born in 1724 in Langenargen, on the shores of Lake Constance, into a family of painters. Arriving in Vienna at a very young age, he studied at the Imperial Academy in 1739 and won first prize for painting in 1750. His culture brought together Paul Troger, the Venetian color, Piazzetta, Tiepolo and Rembrandt's light. From the frescoes of the church of the Piarists Maria Treu in Vienna, executed in 1752 -1753, he broke with conventional decorative clarity. Shortened figures, almost grotesque faces, carried away gestures and gaps in light make up a visionary space where the scene seems to dissolve into the atmosphere. Success with churches, monasteries and courtyards leads him to work throughout the Habsburg monarchy: Austria, Hungary, Moravia and Bohemia. Each large ceiling is preceded by oil sketches which concentrate his invention in a more intimate format. His altarpieces, allegories and sacred scenes often contrast deep shadows with luminous apparitions, while pink, blue, yellow and pearly colors circulate between the figures. In his later years, Maulbertsch often adapted this language to classical taste without losing his expressive freedom. He still painted the frescoes of the library of the Strahov Monastery in Prague in 1794 -1795, shortly before his death in Vienna in 1796. The selection "Franz Anton Maulbertsch" notably highlights farewell Look of Peter and Paul and World Mission of the Jesuits. Its reading favors atmosphere.

In Maulbertsch, light does not illuminate the scene: it passes through it, fragments it and draws the figures into its vision.