Johann Georg Platzer

In 1726, the 22-year-old Platzer enrolled in the newly re-opened Imperial Court Academy in Vienna (now known as the Akademie der Bildenden Künste), which became the German-speaking world’s counterpart to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. The Treaty of Vienna (1725) that brokered peace between the Habsburgs and the Spanish Bourbons also brought on a new cultural heyday, with artists arriving in Vienna from other parts of Europe, such as the Venetian portraitist Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757). Theatrical culture flourished under the reign of Charles VI, a gifted musician who invested hugely in concerts, ballets and operas. Platzer would have embraced the taste for opera, both tragic and comic, based on grand mythological subjects or presenting satirical social commentary with humor and irony. Platzer’s repeated use of fantastic architectural motifs continues the tradition of northern Italian quadratura painting, championed by artists like Paolo Veronese and Giambattista Tiepolo, but more specifically he was influenced by the contemporary theatre designs of Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, scenographer for Emperor Charles VI between 1723–1747. The oblique perspective of Platzer’s architectural backdrops, embellished with columns and draperies, often with two vanishing points (as opposed to a central perspective), allowed for greater visual drama, as seen in examples such as Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg) and Banquet of Cleopatra (Alte Galerie Schloss Eggenberg, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz).

Platzer’s most prolific phase was between 1730–1739 when he lived in Vienna. This began with his first major commission in 1730. The Silesian nobleman Albrecht von Sebsich, who came to Vienna on a diplomatic mission, requested fourteen “moral pictures or histories” for his cabinet in Breslau (thirteen of which were destined to the National Museum in Wrocław pre-WWII but only two remain). These works depict allegories, salons and artists’ studios, enlivened with the contemporary pastimes of games, banquets, parties and performances. While the majority of Platzer’s works were executed on a small scale, a few larger examples were produced, such as The Construction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem and its equally large companion piece, The Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, both containing well over a hundred figures each (both ex-Sotheby’s New York, 28 January 2016). Platzer chose his models according to the subject matter: histories and allegories would reference models from antiquity, the Renaissance, and Italian and Flemish Baroque art (for example, Samson’s Revenge, Vienna Belvedere), whereas genre scenes, especially those depicting gallery interiors, took inspiration from 17^th-century Flemish cabinet pictures by the likes of Jan Brueghel the Elder, David Teniers the Younger and Frans Francken the Younger. Platzer’s society subjects show an awareness of the works of Caspar Netscher, François Boucher, as well as Jean-Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-François de Troy that spoke to the taste of the French Royal court sweeping across 18th-century Europe. He frequently painted pictures in pairs, or revisited the same subjects, but never replicated the same composition twice.

Platzer returned to his South Tyrolean homeland in 1739, a year before the death of Charles VI, perhaps due to debilitating health, or as some believe, prompted by rumors of a spicy affair with his patron Albrecht von Sebisch. Since returning to Eppan, he painted with a pointillistic manner, resulting in a stylistic shift from the precise, radiant finish of his mature period to the looser silvery, nature of the late works.

Platzer never worked with an assistant and as a result his works exhibit a consistent, high level of finish. Without an artistic heir, perhaps with the exception of his friend and colleague Franz Christoph Janneck, Platzer suffered neglect as did most of 18^th-century German-speaking art world. In recent years, however, examples by the artist have been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Saint Louis Museum of Art, attesting to a revived interest in the artist among American museums.