Johann Joseph Christian (12 February 1706 – 22 June 1777) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Baroque

Baroque sculpture

Baroque sculpture is the sculpture associated with the Baroque cultural movement, a movement often identified with the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states.-Course:...

 sculptor

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 and woodcarver

Woodworking

Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...

. His masterworks are considered to be the choir stalls in Zwiefalten Abbey

Zwiefalten Abbey

- References :...

 and Ottobeuren Abbey

Ottobeuren Abbey

Ottobeuren is a Benedictine abbey, located in Ottobeuren, near Memmingen in the Bavarian Allgäu, Germany.-First foundation:It was founded in 764 by Blessed Toto, and dedicated to St. Alexander, the martyr. Of its early history little is known beyond the fact that Toto, its first abbot, died about...

.

Christian was born in Riedlingen

Riedlingen

Riedlingen is a town in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, in the south-west of Germany. It is one of the destinations of the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. There are ca. 10,000 inhabitants.- Geography :...

. His rare double gift as a woodworker and stucco

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

 sculptor was equalled only by Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer

Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer

Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer was an important Rococo stuccoist and sculptor, active in southern Germany and Switzerland....

. In 1744 Christian received a commission to work in Zwiefalten Abbey, where until 1755 he created the choir stalls

Quire (architecture)

Architecturally, the choir is the area of a church or cathedral, usually in the western part of the chancel between the nave and the sanctuary . The choir is occasionally located in the eastern part of the nave...

 and numerous stucco figures for the high altar and nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 and side chapels, working alongside the painter Franz Joseph Spiegler

Franz Joseph Spiegler

Franz Joseph Spiegler was a German Baroque painter. He is best known for his frescoes, which decorate many of the churches and monasteries along the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. The frescoes in the Zwiefalten Abbey are considered his masterpiece.Spiegler was born the Free Imperial City of Wangen...

 and the stucco master Johann Michael Feuchtmayer

Johann Michael Feuchtmayer

Johann Michael Feuchtmayer was a German Baroque stucco sculptor and plasterer of the Wessobrunner School, who worked alongside Johann Michael Fischer, Johann Joseph Christian, and Franz Joseph Spiegler to create some of the most famous churches along the Upper...

 and under the direction of the architect Johann Michael Fischer

Johann Michael Fischer

Johann Michael Fischer was a German architect in the late Baroque period....

.

Subsequently, Christian was commissioned to work on the abbatial church of the Holy Trinity in Ottobeuren Abbey

Ottobeuren Abbey

Ottobeuren is a Benedictine abbey, located in Ottobeuren, near Memmingen in the Bavarian Allgäu, Germany.-First foundation:It was founded in 764 by Blessed Toto, and dedicated to St. Alexander, the martyr. Of its early history little is known beyond the fact that Toto, its first abbot, died about...

, for which the architect was once again Fischer and for which Christian created the choir stalls, with gilded reliefs, and the organ reliefs. Once again he worked with Spiegler and J. M. Feuchtmayer.

Besides these two major works, he also worked on various smaller projects, including the parish church in Unlingen

Unlingen

Unlingen is a town in the district of Biberach in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.A notable person who was brought up here was German striker Mario Gomez....

 and the abbey church

Buchau Abbey

Buchau Abbey or the Imperial Abbey of Buchau was a nunnery, and later collegiate foundation, in the present town of Bad Buchau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany....

 in Buchau

Bad Buchau

Bad Buchau is a small town in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with about 4,000 inhabitants. It is situated near the Federsee, which is separated from the town by a wide reed belt....

.

Christian and his wife had 10 children, of whom five survived infancy. His son Karl Anton Christian (1731–1810) became abbot of St. Trudpert's Abbey

St. Trudpert's Abbey

St. Trudpert's Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Münstertal in the southern Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, now the principal house of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert.-History:...

 near Münstertal

Münstertal, Black Forest

Münstertal is a municipality in the southern Black Forest, which belongs to the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is 3 miles east from Staufen.-Notes:...

 in the Black Forest

Black Forest

The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....

, and for this church J. J. Christian created a relief painting using a stucco technique for the high altar that is considered unparalleled. Christian died in Riedlingen. Another son, Franz Joseph Christian (1739–1798), became a sculptor and took over his father's workshop in Riedlingen.

Major works

• Münstertal
  Münstertal, Black Forest
  Münstertal is a municipality in the southern Black Forest, which belongs to the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is 3 miles east from Staufen.-Notes:...
  
  —St. Trudpert's Abbey
  St. Trudpert's Abbey
  St. Trudpert's Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Münstertal in the southern Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, now the principal house of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert.-History:...
  
   (high altar)
• Ottobeuren
  Ottobeuren
  Ottobeuren is a municipality in Bavaria, Germany, located 10 km southeast of Memmingen near the A7. It is famous for Ottobeuren Abbey, situated next to the Basilica....
  
  —Ottobeuren Abbey
  Ottobeuren Abbey
  Ottobeuren is a Benedictine abbey, located in Ottobeuren, near Memmingen in the Bavarian Allgäu, Germany.-First foundation:It was founded in 764 by Blessed Toto, and dedicated to St. Alexander, the martyr. Of its early history little is known beyond the fact that Toto, its first abbot, died about...
  
  , church of the Holy Trinity, (choir stalls and organ reliefs)
• Wiblingen Abbey
  Wiblingen Abbey
  Wiblingen Abbey was a former Benedictine abbey which was later used as barracks. Today its buildings house several departments of the medical faculty of the University of Ulm. The former abbey is located south of the confluence of the rivers Danube and Iller, south of the city of Ulm in the German...
  
  —church of St. Martin (choir stalls, created along with his son Franz Joseph)
• Zwiefalten
  Zwiefalten
  Zwiefalten is a municipality in the district of Reutlingen, located halfway between Stuttgart and Lake Constance. The former Zwiefalten Abbey dominates the town...
  
  —Zwiefalten Abbey
  Zwiefalten Abbey
  - References :...
  
  (choir stalls, high altar, and almost all other sculpture)