Carl Seffner
{{Short description|German sculptor}}
File:Vxla-jsbach-at-thomaskirsche.jpg at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig]]
Carl Ludwig Seffner (19 June 1861 – 2 October 1932) was a German sculptor. He is best remembered for his statue of Johann Sebastian Bach at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig.
Early life and work
Born in 1861, Seffner studied at the Leipzig Academy of Art from 1877 to 1883. After a period in Berlin, from 1886 to 1888 he studied in Paris and Italy. He returned to Leipzig in 1889, and for the next few years, worked for the University of Leipzig, where he produced the marble busts of Anton Springer, Karl Thiersch, Bernhard Windscheid and Carl Ludwig. After J.S. Bach's skull was found in 1894 during the building of {{Interlanguage link multi|St. John, Leipzig|de|3=Johanniskirche (Leipzig)}},{{cite book|last=Stefoff|first=Rebecca|title=Forensic Anthropology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYp4WWTv2LoC&pg=PA54|date=2010|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-4142-7|page=54}} in 1895, Seffner and Wilhelm His were commissioned to produce an anatomical reconstruction.{{cite book|last=Wild|first=Michael|title=Baedekeriana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x89aAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA94|year=2010|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-0-9565289-0-2|page=94}} The anatomical elements are attributed to His, while the shape work and painting are the work of Seffner. The work earned him an honorary doctorate from the medical faculty of the University of Leipzig. The same year, Seffner became a member of the Masonic Lodge {{Interlanguage link multi|Minerva zu den drei Palmen|de}}.{{cite book|last1=Förster|first1=Otto Werner|last2=Wolf|first2=Hans-Joachim|title=Ein Weltmann in Plagwitz und Schleussig: Carl Ernst Mey und die Deutsche Celluloid-Fabrik Actiengesellschaft|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FEq1AAAAIAAJ|date=1 January 1999|publisher=Taurus|language=German|isbn=978-3-9805669-8-8|page=11}}
Commission
Seffner went on to produce sculptures of Karl Heine (1896/1897), the Mayor {{Interlanguage link multi|Carl Wilhelm Otto Koch|de}} (1898), young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as a student in Leipzig (1902),{{cite book|last=Pohlsander|first=Hans A.|title=National Monuments and Nationalism in 19th Century Germany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TK-YaXNpH0C&pg=PA115|year=2008|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-3-03911-352-1|page=115}} and Edvard Grieg (1904).{{cite book|last=Lawford-Hinrichsen|first=Irene|title=Five hundred years to Auschwitz: a family odyssey from the Inquisition to the present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzArAQAAIAAJ|date=8 October 2008|publisher=Edition Press|isbn=978-0-9536112-1-8|page=101}} Additional works include the busts of Albert of Saxony, Alois Senefelder, and Friedrich Koenig.{{cite book|author=International Publishers Association|title=Rapports|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6m8RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA342|edition=Public domain|year=1902|publisher=Associazione Tipografico-libraria Italiana|pages=342–}} After being elected an honorary member of the Leipzig Art Society in 1899{{cite book|title=Schmidt - Theyer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-hrRQvGV7sC&pg=PA268|date=1 January 2005|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-096629-9|page=268}} and the Dresden Art Academy in 1901.
In 1908, Seffner produced a statue of Bach, which stands near the proximity of the west entrance to St. Thomas Church.{{cite book|last=Erickson|first=Raymond|title=The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1UbK52-H3xcC&pg=PA142|year=2009|publisher=Amadeus Press|isbn=978-1-57467-166-7|page=142}} Local art critic Arthur Smolian anticipated that Seffner's work would turn the city into a "Bayreuth of Bach's art" and attract pilgrims.{{cite book|last=Varwig|first=Bettina|title=Histories of Heinrich Schütz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9OlNfxjwFAkC&pg=PA149|date=3 November 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-50201-6|page=149}} Of bronze, it measure {{convert|2.45|m}} in height and sits on a {{convert|3.2|m|adj=on}} high socle. There is a music scroll in the statue's right hand and the left hand is raised from an organ manual. The statue debuted on 17 May 1908, coinciding with Leipzig's first Bach festival.{{cite book|last=Pohlsander|first=Hans A.|title=National Monuments and Nationalism in 19th Century Germany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1TK-YaXNpH0C&pg=PA123|year=2008|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-3-03911-352-1|page=123}} Seffner was also commissioned to produce numerous graves and stones for the South Cemetery in Leipzig. In the years before his death in Leipzig in 1932, he was an active member of the group of artists {{Interlanguage link multi|Leoniden|de|3=Leoniden_(Verein)}}.{{cite book|last=Möbus|first=Frank|title=Ringelnatz: ein Dichter malt seine Welt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-9algLlZ_EC&pg=PA19|year=2000|publisher=Wallstein Verlag|language=German|isbn=978-3-89244-337-7|page=19}}
References
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