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Courtesy of Austria Today Vol 8 No.4/98

As one of the great masters of Austrian Baroque architecture, Johann Fischer von Erlach had a strong impact on Vienna's cityscape through his buildings. They created lasting architectural reference points that later urban planners could not afford to ignore.

By Isabella Ackerl, who writes for the Federal Press Service in Vienna.

Photos inserted into the document by: Max Riedlsperger

Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach's "ideal designs," imbued with the spirit of the Roman school of Baroque, had a significant influence on many architects in the eighteenth century. With his son, Joseph Emanuel, who finished a major part of his late oeuvre, he set the jewels in the figurative crown of Baroque Vienna. What made Fischer so popular with the aristocracy and the imperial court was his familiarity with the architectural tradition of Rome. The frequent allusions to "Roma antica" in his designs made his clients sure that here was a style of architecture nourished by a powerful tradition. Moreover, the imperial court in late 17th-century Vienna tended to be italophile anyway for a variety of reasons, a preference by no means limited to architecture.

To present architectural critics, Fischer's greatness is beyond any doubt. But the reputation of this master of architecture, about whose personality we know next to nothing, was not always so assured. In the age of architectural historicism in the second half of the 19th century, many intellectuals despised the Baroque. Only the imperial court, which remained faithful to Baroque forms both in its ceremonial and in its residential arrangements, did not bow to the new fashion of cramming houses and apartments with the pompous pseudo-Renaissance or "Old German" furniture favored, for example, by the epoch's star painter, Hans Makart. In fact, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir apparent, believed late Baroque architecture to be the Austrian national style, an attitude that prompted him to treat the new Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the century with utter contempt.

On the other hand, Fischer's genius was misappropriated by the art historians of the German nationalist school, who claimed him as a protagonist of an imperial or "Reich" style, calling his first design for the Schönbrunn Palace "titanic," an epithet not likely to endear him to more sophisticated minds. To be sure, one of their leading lights, Hans Sedlmayr, did not pass over the Italian influences on Fischer in silence, but he nevertheless miscast Fischer in the role of a "Northern" antithesis to the "Southern" style of architecture.

Johann Bernhard Fischer was born in St. Martin near Graz on July 20, 1656 as the son of a sculptor. It is very probable that he received his basic training in his father's workshop. Around 1670, Fischer went to Rome, where he was to stay for many years. At first he worked as a sculptor and only later added architecture to his professional interests. His first teacher was Philipp Schorr, Rome's leading decorative sculptor of his time. Probably Fischer also attended the Accademia di San Luca, the epoch's most important art school. Like all young architects, he closely studied the architecture of Rome. Through his acquaintance with the circle of artists that had formed around Queen Christina of Sweden, who was living in exile in Rome, Fischer's cultural perspective widened. He learned to value the traditions of antiquity and to embody them in modern buildings without renouncing the typical style of his own century. It is also to Roman influences that art historians trace Fischer's personal philosophy of architecture. His attention is mainly directed to the "body" of a building and the way in which it fits into the perspective of the surrounding space. The primary consideration is the formal shaping of volume in response to the building's surroundings. Ornaments always play a secondary or even quite subordinate role. One of the elements he brought to Vienna from Rome was a predilection for domed structures, and his many designs for country houses, belvederes, and pavilions located in gardens were also influenced by Italian models.

Around 1686, Fischer returned to Austria. He quickly established contacts with the imperial court, for already in 1688 he produced his first design for Schönbrunn, a bold, almost unreal project that showed his imagination and his genius in handling perspective but was never executed because it was too big and not entirely worked out.

Another job Fischer took on for the imperial court was to act as architectural tutor to the Emperor's son Joseph, later Emperor Joseph I. His first great success came in 1690 when he designed a triumphal arch for his pupil. The following decade was a time of many commissions and successes for him. In 1696, he was ennobled as Fischer "von Erlach," although probably this was not much consolation for him for the lack of commissions from the Emperor. Emperor Leopold I was short of funds and was not much interested in architecture anyway.

The Archbishop of Salzburg, Johann Ernst, Count Thun, asked Fischer to come to Salzburg, where he was commissioned to build four new churches in the following years. These churches are still salient features in the Salzburg townscape. The Archbishop's commissions were the new Salzburg "Priests' House" or seminary with the Trinity Church, the Church of St. John's Hospital, the University Church, and the Ursuline convent with its church. In his Salzburg churches, Fischer used different types of designs for the main body, choosing domed forms with central schemes or longitudinal plans. He created a visual dynamic by letting his facades swing in and out. He used paintings and frescos very sparingly. His interiors are sober, the plane surfaces even severe. The walls are usually white, which places the accent on the spatial concept.

The great aristocratic families were important clients for architects in those years because it was they who had enough money to build. They usually commissioned two types of buildings: sumptuous city palaces and country houses or villas surrounded by extensive gardens. Fischer's strength lay primarily in the spatial design of the body of a building, while the facade of his town houses were more or less in tune with the tastes of his time. "Ressauts" (projections) and axial accents are the essential elements of his facade schemes. Where Fischer was really innovative was in the layout of the rooms and in the style of his staircases. The Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy is a good example.

Country houses, belvederes, etc., required less formal solutions in designing the body of these buildings. Fischer invented a special Viennese type of "villa suburbana" with direct access to the gardens from the ground floor. Fischer's basic idea of a "pleasure house" was not primarily oriented to practical uses. Rather, he experimented with various structures that he placed into the scenery like sculptures.

In 1705, Emperor Joseph I appointed his favorite architect "His Imperial Majesty's Chief Inspector of All Court and Pleasure Buildings," but this did not mean more commissions. It was only after 1710 that he once again began to receive important commissions from the imperial court. Thus he built the Bohemian Chancellery in Vienna. Other major projects in those years were the Trautson Palace in Vienna and the Clam-Gallas Palace in Prague. The new Emperor, Charles VI, loved architecture. In order to win his favor, Fischer dedicated his "Plan of Civil and Historical Architecture" to him. This was a work in which Fischer surveyed the entire history of architecture from the Egyptian pyramids through the masterpieces of the Greeks and Romans to the architecture of his own period. The Emperor was so impressed that he placed Fischer in charge of a huge project that envisaged the rebuilding of the old parts of the imperial palace, the Hofburg, as well as the addition of new wings. Fischer started with the Imperial Stables and at the same time pursued his planning for the Imperial Library. His son Joseph Emanuel later added the Imperial Chancellery wing, the Winter Riding School, and the facade looking onto St. Michael's Square.

In 1715, Charles VI commissioned Fischer to design the Church of St. Charles Borromeo. It was a great honor for the architect and this monument to "pietas Austriaca" was to become Fischer's crowning achievement. He developed a conception rich in allegories embodied both in the building's placement and spatial layout and in the design of its details. There are references to the roots of the Holy Roman Empire in antiquity as well as to the Habsburgs' claims to their Spanish dominions, which they had lost shortly before in the War of the Spanish Succession. Thus the pair of columns in front of the church alludes to ancient Rome but at the same time to the "pillars of Hercules" and thus to the Spanish empire. St. Charles's Church became a symbol of the dynasty's grandeur and later of Austria's political identity that has outlasted all political upheavals over the centuries.

Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach died on April 5, 1723 in Vienna.