The Apotheosis of St Benedict

With his domed ceiling fresco in the monastic church of M�nsterschwarzach, Johann Evangelist Holzer supplied the stylistic, compositional and contentual model for G�nther. It was Holzer’s pioneering achievement of finding an individual form of expression in a time of stylistic change that forged the link between Rococo and Neoclassicism. At Rott am Inn, G�nther dispenses with Holzer’s technique of architectural illusion. The real architecture is no longer continued into the painting, nor does it open up to a celestial illusion. The ceiling painting is like an easel painting projected onto the ceiling, avoiding exaggerated sotto in su views from below.

The detail from the overall painting which shows the Holy Trinity in the centre, presents the founders of the Benedictine order on concentrically aligned banks of clouds, with the angles bearing the symbols of his life - chastity, continence, survived assassination attempt (the poisoned chalice alludes to this) and the rules of the order. What is new here, and characteristic of G�nther, is the predominantly grey colouring that replaces the bright colours of Asam and Zimmermann and heralds the advent of Neoclassicism.