Entwurf zur Silberfigur der Maria Immaculata in der Münchner Frauenkirche, 1731

Description

Probably from 1730 onwards, the chapter of the collegiate monastery of Our Lady in Munich endeavoured to procure a life-size silver figure of the church patroness, the Virgin and Mother of God Mary, conceived without original sin, for its collegiate church (Munich’s "Frauenkirche", today’s cathedral). The costs for this were raised through donations from the canons. A file from the monastery’s archives provides information about the financing, design process and execution. In the spring of 1731, the chapter approached the Augsburg goldsmith Johann Georg Herkommer (died 1754) for a cost estimate. The request was accompanied by a "sketch" showing the planned figure together with its pedestal; the total height was to be 9 foot (approx. 2.70 m). The creator of this pen-and-ink drawing was probably the Munich painter and graphic artist Johann Adam Miller (died 1738). This first design, however, seemed too "monotonous" to both the goldsmith and the patrons, so they turned to the famous Munich painter Cosmas Damian Asam (1686-1739) for another one. A wooden model (still preserved today in the Jesuit Church of St. Michael in Munich) was carved from his drawing and formed the basis for the execution. The statue was delivered from Augsburg to Munich at the end of February 1732. From then on, it stood on the high altar on feast days and was one of the greatest treasures of the Frauenkirche. The silver figure was confiscated and melted down by the Bavarian state in the course of the secularisation of the collegiate monastery.