Franz Hoppenstätt Explained

Franz Hoppenstätt (died 1657 or 1658) was a German-Estonian wood carver.

Life and works

Franz Hoppenstätt probably came originally from Bremen. His work is evident in Estonia from the 1640s. From 1653 he was a citizen of Tallinn.^[1] There he worked as a wood carver. His Early Baroque works that were decorated with splendid acanthus ornamentation have become famous.

Particularly well known works include:

• The coloured pulpit of the church of Järva-Jaani made by Hoppenstätt with its magnificent carvings (1648)
• The decorated wall of the funerary chapel of Bogislaus von Rosen in St. Nicholas' Church, Tallinn (1655)^[2]
• The door of the house, Pikk tänav 71, in the old town of Tallinn.^[3]

None of the works bear Hoppenstätt's signature, so their attribution to him remains in doubt; but all three works are by the same artist.^[4]

Hoppenstätt died in the late 1650s, probably of the plague.

See also

• List of Baltic German artists

External links

• Decorative wall of the funerary chapel of Bogislaus von Rosen (English)
• Ev. Luth. St. John's Church in Järva-Jaani

Notes and References

1. http://www.ekm.ee/eng/niguliste_print.php?id=275&p_id=136 The Decorative Screen of the Chapel of Bogislaus Rosen
2. Destroyed during a Soviet air raid on Tallinn in March 1944, albeit fragments remain
3. Eesti Elulood. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14), p. 94
4. http://www.ekm.ee/en/ Art Museum of Estonia