Lot 20

Ignác František Platzer (1717 - 1787) SAINT JOHN OF NEPOMUK

Sketch of the statue of St. Jan Nepomucký, whose larger realization comes from the decoration of the Premonstratensian monastery in Teplá, it was made in 1750s. It depicts the greatest domestic Baroque saint stepping on one foot, while the other, according to traditional iconography, relies on either a shell, a fish or a river wave. In a later elaboration, Jan Nepomucký holds a book in his left hand and has a biret on it. Platzer's work is characterized by bodily sensuality and fullness of forms - the author has succeeded in combining the domestic High Baroque tradition with Viennese classicism. František Ignác Platzer was a Czech late Baroque sculptor and carver, a member of the family of carvers from Western Bohemia. He trained in Vienna and founded a large workshop in Prague, which supplied entire sets of carving and stone sculptures for churches, monasteries, castles and castle gardens throughout Bohemia for more than 150 years, until the beginning of the 20th century.