Baroque period
Collection
The "Baroque Period" collection of the Museum für Franken comprises several tens of thousands of objects from all over Franconia from the beginning of the 17th century to the end of the 18th century and is extremely diverse.
The current permanent exhibition includes paintings and prints, furniture, sculptures, objects from the arts and crafts and religious objects. Highlights include the faience collection with many unique pieces from the Franconian manufactories: Würzburg, Nuremberg, Ansbach and Bayreuth, the extensive Bozzetti collection, the well-researched collection of clocks and scientific instruments and the "Eckert" collection, which provides a unique insight into Balthasar Neumann's engineering office.
Among the artists and masters are many well-known names: Ferdinand Tietz, Johann Peter Wagner, Johann Wolfgang von der Auwera, Georg Anton Urlaub, Johannes and Januarius Zick, Johann Rudolf Byss, Cornelis de Vos and Oswald Onghers. Particular highlights of the collection are the paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, some of which were created as designs for the frescoes of the Würzburg Residence, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.
Among the largest collections of German Baroque bozzetti, the collection of the Mainfränkisches Museum, with a total of 138 pieces [...] is numerically the second largest, but in terms of its multi-layered composition from the entire field of 18th-century Würzburg sculpture it is the most important.
"The collection of Baroque objects in the holdings of the Museum für Franken is just as diverse, varied, colorful and characterized by strong contrasts as the Baroque period itself."
Teresa Novy, Head of Collection
In addition to the many magnificent pieces of furniture made for the prince-bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg, the collection also contains no less impressive furniture from other classes and contexts. A particularly colorful closet from 1755 comes from Wunsiedel and was probably part of a trousseau.
In addition to Tiepolo, other international artists and masters worked in Franconia, such as the Paris-born Claude Curé, who was even appointed court sculptor and created impressive works in his new Franconian home.
However, the Museum für Franken does not only present the splendor and magnificence of the Baroque and Rococo periods. The dark and difficult times of the early modern period are also on display. The engraving series "The Horrors of War" by Jacques Callot, for example, also allows the darker sides of the Baroque period to be brought to display.
Further works from this collection area
Visit our online collection!
Highlights from the collections of arts and crafts, paintings, furniture, Judaica, faiences, coins and medals as well as from the "Miracles for Franconia" project can now be discoveredin our online collection!
