Johann Elias Ridinger

{{short description|German painter}}

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File:Johann Elias Ridinger.jpg of Johann Elias Ridinger in c. 1750]]

File:Musée des arts décoratifs - Memento mori - Johann Elias Ridinger - Collection de la Baronne Henri de Rothschild Inv.25796.jpg ]]

Johann Elias Ridinger (16 February 1698 in Ulm – 10 April 1767 in Augsburg) was a German painter, engraver, draughtsman and publisher. He is considered one of the most famous German engravers of animals, particularly horses, hounds and hunting scenes.{{cite web|url=http://www.wildlifeart.org/artists/artistDetails/index.php?aID=450|title=Johann Elias Ridinger|work=National Museum of Wildlife Art|access-date=25 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921090345/http://www.wildlifeart.org/artists/artistDetails/index.php?aID=450#|archive-date=21 September 2011|url-status=dead}} His art was also depicted on Meissen porcelain giving wide recognition in his time.

Life and work

Ridinger was born in Ulm in a family of artists. His father Johann Daniel (1656- c. 1737) was a scribe married to Regina Catharina Miller (1663-1703). He began his training in Ulm with the painter Christoph Resch (1701–16). Resch gave his students the menial tasks of painting wax models but trained them on perspective, geometry and architecture. Ridinger later studied under Johann Falch (1687–1727) in Augsburg. He learned the art of engraving from Georg Philipp Rugendas.{{cite web|url=http://www.philographikon.com/ridinger.html|title=Antique Ridinger Prints|work=philographikon.com}} On the recommendation of Gabriel Spitzel he worked for Wolf, Freiherr von Metternich (1706–31), he spent three years in Regensburg: his coursing and visits to the riding school there proved decisive for his development. His engraved, etched and scratched sheets show the animals in characteristic movements and positions in a landscape environment. The ornamental movements in his works show visibly Rococo stylistic tendencies.{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/johann-elias-ridinger-2|title=Johann Elias Ridinger|work=Answers.com|access-date=26 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402105522/http://www.answers.com/topic/johann-elias-ridinger-2#|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=dead}} He returned to Augsburg and studied engraving and etching under Georg Philipp Rugendas the Elder (1666-1742). Ridinger married Jacobina zur Helle, the widow of his friend Johannes Seuter in 1723 and shortly after founded his own art publishing house in Augsburg, where most of his works appeared. In 1757 he worked as an assessor at the Protestant Marriage Court and in 1759 he became the director of the Augsburg Stadtakademie. Nearly 1600 prints were produced by his firm of which 1200 depict animals. His drawings were often executed with precision and taste and hence his work was held in high esteem and was also transferred to decoration, porcelain and ceramics.{{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Wilhelm |url=https://de.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=ADB:Ridinger&oldid=- |title=Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Band 28 |publisher=Duncker and Humblot |year=1889 |location=Leipzig |pages=505–507 |chapter=Ridinger}}{{cite book |author=Thienemann,Georg August Wilhelm |url=https://archive.org/details/lebenundwirkende00thie |title=: Leben und Wirken des unvergleichlichen Tiermalers und Kupferstechers Ridinger |year=1856 |place=Leipsig}} He died from a stroke at the age of 69. His sons Martin Elias and Johann Jakob continued to produce prints from his original copperplates.{{Cite journal |last=Berg |first=Lars |date=2014 |title=Johann Elias Ridinger als Zeichner |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26385248 |journal=Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen |volume=56 |pages=91–110 |issn=0075-2207}}

Ridinger's life is known thanks to a manuscript biography written in 1764. This manuscript was owned by Rudolph Weigel (1804-1867) in Leipzig and was published in 1766. Ridinger's son also wrote a biography of their father. Georg August Wilhelm Thienemann (1781–1863) wrote another major biography.

Literature

  • {{NDB|21|555 || Ridinger, Johann Elias|Peter Prange|118600621}}
  • Ign. Schwarz: Katalog einer Ridinger-Sammlung. (Sammlung Rudolf Ritter von Gutmann.) Vienna 1910.
  • [http://erlebnis.ridinger.de/ erlebnis ridinger 1698-1998]. Dem über die Jahrhunderte hinweg triumphierenden Meister und seinen Freunden zum 300. Geburtstag. Jubilée publication. 1998
  • Lüder H. Niemeyer: [http://www.ridinger.de/contribs/rede.php Dresdner Rede. Der verharmloste Ridinger], 27 April 1998
  • Lüder H. Niemeyer: [http://www.ridinger.de/contribs/vanitas.php Die Vanitas-Graphik von Johann Elias Ridinger], 2000
  • Lüder H. Niemeyer: [http://www.ridinger.de/contribs/watteau.php Die fruchtbare Durchdringung. Watteau im Werke Ridinger's], 2000
  • Jan Hendrik Niemeyer: Johann Elias Ridinger im Reiche der Kolorierten Thiere. Entstehung und Vollendung einer Folge. New revised edition. 2010
  • {{ill|Ellen Spickernagel|de}}: Dem Auge auf die Sprünge helfen. Jagdbare Tiere und Jagden bei Johann Elias Ridinger (1698–1767). In: Annette Bühler-Dietrich u. Michael Weingarten (eds.), Topos Tier: Neue Gestaltungen des Tier-Mensch-Verhältnisses. Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-2860-9, pp. 103–123.
  • U. Heise: Ridinger, Johann Elias. In: Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, vol. 98, Berlin, Munich, New York 2017, pp. 472 ff.
  • J.E. Ridinger, Entwurff Einiger Thiere (...) 1738–1740. Faksimile edition, Dr. Wolfgang Schwarze Verlag, Wuppertal 1975.
  • [https://www.blf-online.de/sites/default/files/blf_quellen_dateien/bblf_jahrgang_50_1987_heft_13_14_15.pdf Johann Elias Ridinger]. In: Monika Michel: Vorfahren und Verwandte des Tiermalers und Kupferstechers Johann Elias Ridinger (1698–1767). Blätter des Bayerischen Landesvereins für Familienkunde, 50th volume, issue 15, nos. 13–15. 1987. p. 396 f.
  • Jan Hendrik Niemeyer: Ridinger Erlebnisse. Leben Werk Nachruhm in Daten + Annotationen. Norderstedt 2021. ISBN 978-3-7534-3535-0.

See also

References

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