Josef Moriggl
Encyclopedia
Josef Moriggl was a master 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...

 and teacher whose work covered both religious and folk themes. Examples of his intricately detailed carvings
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...

, sculpture
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...

s, and furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 can be found today in churches and private collections, mainly in his native Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 but also abroad.

Early years and career

Josef Moriggl was born in 1841 in Nauders
Nauders
Nauders is a municipality in the district of Landeck in Tyrol, Austria. It can be found 29 km south of the city of Landeck. As it is near both the Italian and Swiss borders, at the end of World War II numerous Nazi officials fled through Nauders to escape arrest.-External links:...

, a village in the Tirolean
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

 district of Landeck
Landeck
Landeck is a city in Tyrol, Austria with approximately 7,633 inhabitants. It is located at an elevation of about 820 m in the west of Tyrol, on the rivers Sanna and Inn...

. His early artistic training began with a high school course in drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...

, where his artistic aptitude was first apparent. He went on to study at the Mayersche Kunstanstalt (Art School) in Munich and completed his studies at the Craft Trade Institute in Vienna.

In 1873, Moriggl was hired as an instructor by the woodcarving school in Taufers
Taufers im Münstertal
Taufers im Münstertal is a comune in South Tyrol in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 80 km northwest of the city of Trento and about 70 km west of the city of Bolzano , on the border with Switzerland.-Geography:As of November 30, 2010, it had a population...

, where he stayed for seven years. In 1880 he became Director of the woodcarving school in Hall
Hall in Tirol
Hall in Tirol is a town in the Innsbruck-Land district of Tyrol, Austria. Located at an altitude of 574 m, about 5 km east of the state's capital Innsbruck in the Inn valley, it has a population of about 12,700 .-History:...

. During that time he not only taught but took on many private commissions. His eminence in the field was recognized in 1893 when he was named Professor at the Staats-Gewerbeschule (Craft School) in Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

. He retained that post until his retirement on February 28, 1907. He died 28 October 1908 in Innsbruck, and was survived by two sons, Josef and Hugo.

Artistic achievements

Although Moriggl was adept in several media, he is best known as an outstanding carver of wooden sculptures. A prime of example of this work, contained in a private collection in Ireland, is a 60 cm high carving of a Tirolean peasant in the act of releasing a bowling ball. It is carved from a single piece of pearwood, and the wood is stained rather than painted in a variety of muted colours. The exact date of carving is not known, but it is recorded as having been given as a wedding present in 1891. A folkloric "Shoe-slapping Group" is recorded as having been created in 1898. Other notable works had religious themes, including a collection of angels exhibited in Innbruck’s Heimat church (1871), a Virgin
Madonna (art)
Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...

 (1885), a St. Cecilia (1887), several statues of Christ, and a “Lufterweibchen” created for the Anglers Guild (1903). Also outstanding are a life-sized statue of Mary (and "Immaculata") for a convent in Stams
Stams
Stams is a municipality in the Imst district and is located 18.50 km east of Imst, 7 km west of Telfs and 46 km west of Innsbruck on the southern shore of the Inn River...

 and two angels for the parish church in Nauders.

He also carved wooden tables and cabinet decorations, and created small framed pictures showing coloured Tirolean costumes and folk themes. Many of the latter were made for export to Russia, though these were probably not signed.

Moriggl’s work was presented in exhibitions in Munich in 1876 and in Paris in 1878, where he was awarded a medal and honorary prize.
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