The Church of St. Valentine in Mais and the Puellachers (Continuation)

Appendix.

History and Art.

The Church of St. Valentine in Mais, and the Puellachers. 3/4

(Continuation.)

Knoller, then at the height of his career, was pleased with Puellacher's enterprising spirit and skill. He offered to take him into his workshop. The latter, however, had already taken Kriselde Baumgartner as his wife. He gladly granted this great fortune to his exceptionally capable assistant. Through the effective intercession of the Prelate 1), his wish was fulfilled.

Meanwhile, Puellacher continued his industrious work and gradually ventured into larger commissions. In 1780, he painted the co-parish church of Our Lady of Consolation in Mais, which continues to delight the common people immensely. The fresco paintings in Sölden, Lengenfeld, and Grieß in the Oezthal are also his works, as were the paintings in the church in Scharnitz that burned down in 1805. If he had no larger commissions in his homeland, he traveled to Switzerland during the summer. There one can see the former so-called Prince's Hall painted by him in the abbey building at St. Gallen, and among others the churches in Hefteswil and Niederglatt, along with five altarpieces.

In general, he combined in his works a rare ease and speed with very pleasing coloring, and he was extraordinarily inventive. He certainly would have become a great man had he found earlier and better opportunities and guidance for the full development of his genius, and had he not been hindered from deeper study, especially regarding drawing, by mounting financial worries.

Even in his old age, he occupied himself with continuous work. He copied, painted portraits, made landscape views, etc. He was 74 years old when he died in his homeland in 1802.

Of his children, he initially wished to train his eldest son Lorenz in painting. But since he showed no inclination, the younger Leopold, born on November 3, 1776, had to step in. After some instruction and preliminary exercises at home, his father took him along to Switzerland while still a boy. In 1789, in his fourteenth year, he sent him to Linz for comprehensive training.

The sculptor Gaßler had just come on a visit from Linz to Telfs. He took him along there. A single ducat along with a father's encouraging words and blessing was the entire provision with which his father sent him off. The hardship and want with which he had to struggle initially spurred his diligence and attentiveness. He was recommended to the worthy painter Hitzenthaler. Already in his first year, he managed to reach a point where he no longer needed to worry about his livelihood. He benefited greatly from the well-equipped drawing school and, by chance, a private academy established by the skilled drawing master Bestian and the priest Titto, 2) a great connoisseur of art and draftsman. Among his fellow students were several young sculptors, but only one painter, his countryman Klapeer. 3) Puellacher distinguished himself there so creditably that upon the death of his second master, Johann Georg Kapeller, a native of Imst, the city magistrate of Linz offered him unsolicited, despite his youth, admission and even the hand of his master's surviving daughter. A protracted, near-fatal illness thwarted these plans. Having returned to health, he made the firm resolution to enter, at all costs, into the inner sanctuary of art. He had already advanced so far on that path that out of deep conviction he often thought and said to himself: "You know nothing yet!" For this reason, he pressed on without hesitation toward the imperial city.

In Vienna, though entirely a stranger, he found a very welcome reception with the landscape painter Gaßner, who was also a native Tyrolean from Fügen in the Zillerthal. By him he was employed to add figures to his landscapes. Soon, through his skill and good conduct, he gained further patrons and sufficient support. The imperial-royal court decorator Platzer was especially well-disposed toward him. The latter employed him in theatrical decoration and sent him in 1800 to Großkaroli in Lower Hungary to the count of the same name, for whom he had to furnish and paint an entirely new theatre. From there he proceeded to Transylvania to Prince Wesselini, in whose castle near Hermannstadt he painted a large hall and a chapel in fresco. Encouraged by the generous compensation for his previous work, he returned to Vienna in 1802 to continue his studies.

This time, through his enterprising spirit and dexterity, he won the particular confidence of the director of the imperial-royal Academy, Fieger. Puellacher still speaks this name, dear to him, with reverence and gratitude, having learned much under his guidance. The imperial-royal court painter Galling employed him, among other tasks, in the refurbishment of the imperial-royal pleasure palace of Laxenburg, copying imperial portraits from oil to fresco, etc. Meanwhile, the threat of war loomed even over the capital of the monarchy. Puellacher too enlisted among the Viennese volunteers in the imperial-royal academic corps. But now he had reached the end set for his travels. Amid the clatter of arms, the muses fall silent. The lecture halls and picture galleries were closed, the art collections mostly packed up and placed in safety. Puellacher's striving to expand his knowledge could no longer be satisfied in Vienna. This prompted him to return to his homeland.

After an absence of 24 years, he returned in 1804 to his native Telfs, not with the intention of remaining there, but to proceed from there to Rome. Yet the wartime conditions of that period blocked him, if not from the road thither, then certainly from the prospect of gaining any advantage there. He therefore had to remain here for the time being and, since there were no larger commissions, content himself with smaller ones.

In 1805, he married Kreszenz Gufler, and following her death in 1815, married for the second time Maria Weißenbach, a sister of Dr. and Professor Weißenbach, who was likewise born in Telfs and passed away recently in Salzburg.

1) Schöpf always showed himself truly grateful toward Stams for this and for many subsequent supports, especially through his well-known and precious bequest.

2) Titto was a Netherlander who had fled his homeland with an art collection and was residing in Linz at that time.

3) Anton Klapeer, a native of Nauders, settled in Meran around the year 1800. He engaged in all branches of painting, as well as gilding and woodcarving; he was exceptionally agile, adept in architectural painting, and very successful at copying. His most successful works may be an altarpiece, the Resurrection of Christ, after Knoller, in oil, in the parish church of St. Vigilius in Mais, and a ceiling fresco in the porch of the Church of Our Lady there, his last and, so far as is known to us, also his first major work of this kind. He had scarcely completed it, already feeling unwell, when he hurried to recover in fresh air and water. Yet he found what he did not seek—his grave, in Prutz in 1824. Through his tireless activity and utmost thrift, he amassed a considerable fortune, for which his wife and children left behind in Meran are grateful.

(Conclusion to follow.)