Permoser, Balthasar

Permoser, Balthasar 

Baptized Aug. 13, 1651, in Kammer, Bavaria; died Feb. 20, 1732, in Dresden. Austrian sculptor.

From 1663 to 1675, Permoser studied and worked in Salzburg and Vienna. From 1675 to 1689 he worked in Italy; from 1689, mainly in Dresden; and from 1704 to 1710, in Berlin. Influenced by the Italian baroque, Permoser created works permeated with an expressiveness that bordered on the grotesque, as can be seen in his bust The Curse (marble, c. 1722–24, now in the Museum of the History of the City of Leipzig). In his monumental decorative works, such as the sculptural ornament of the Zwinger palace in Dresden (stone, 1711–18), he strove for an almost rococo lightness of forms, attempting to create the impression that the forms grew out of the very building.

REFERENCES

Boeck, W. Balthasar Permoser. Burg, 1938.
Asche, S. Balthasar Permoser und die Barockskulptur des Dresdner Zwingers. Freiburg-Munich, 1966.