(Josef) Ernst von Bandel

(b Ansbach, nr Nuremberg, 17 May 1800; d Neudeck, nr Donauw?rth, 25 Sept 1876). German sculptor. At the age of 17 he went to Munich, where in 1819-20 he worked in the studio of the architect Karl von Fischer as an architectural draughtsman for the Bavarian court. In 1820 he began to study painting at the Akademie der bildenden K?nste in Munich under Peter von Langer (1756-1824) but soon transferred to the sculpture class taught by Johann Nepomuk Haller (1792-1826). After completing this training, he travelled to Italy in 1825 on a scholarship awarded by Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, and remained there two years. In Rome he met Bertel Thorvaldsen, Ludwig von Schwanthaler and Martin Wagner. However, he did not feel that Classical art and a study of the Antique would help him in the realization of his ideals but rather believed that he could develop a natural, Germanic art from the spirit of the Gothic. Between 1827 and 1834 he was again in Munich, working primarily on commissions for Ludwig I. These included such sculptures as The Sculptor (1829) and Hope (1831) for the pediment of the Glyptothek (both in situ) and sculptures for the Walhalla, near Regensburg (e.g. the bust of Franz von Sickingen, commissioned in 1825). Eager to be independent, in 1834 he moved to Berlin, where he met Johann Gottfried Schadow and was impressed by the realism of his sculpture. He also established contact there with Christian Daniel Rauch. That same year he obtained commissions in Hannover, including those for reliefs of scenes from the Life of Christ for the chapel and musical reliefs for the ballroom of the Leine Schloss. In 1836-7 he completed relief sculptures (e.g. Genius of Science) for the pediment of the Aula at Georg-August-Universit?t in G?ttingen, and in 1844-5 he was in Carrara, where he executed a marble statue of Venus Adorning Herself (Hannover, Nieders?chs. Landesmus.). Among his tombs is one executed in G?ttingen in 1856, which is clearly indebted to Thorwaldsen.

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