Joseph Anton Merz
Encyclopedia
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 painter.
Merz was born in Marktoberdorf
Marktoberdorf
Marktoberdorf is the capital of the Bavarian district of Ostallgäu in the Regierungsbezirk of Swabia.Marktoberdorf is near Kempten, Füssen, known for the castle Neuschwanstein, Bad Wörishofen, and Schongau. The nearest larger city is Kaufbeuren, eleven kilometers away.Marktoberdorf plays host to a...
, in Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
. He was active until 1734, mainly around Straubing
Straubing
Straubing is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Bavaria, is held....
, in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, and predominantly painted altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
s and fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
s. His better known works include a fresco cycle in the Oberalteich Abbey
Oberalteich Abbey
Oberalteich Abbey or Monastery was a house of the Benedictine Order in Bogen in Bavaria.-History:...
, and the ceiling fresco of the Church of St. John of Nepomuk
John of Nepomuk
John of Nepomuk is a national saint of the Czech Republic, who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional...
in Thürnthenning (now in greater Moosthenning
Moosthenning
Moosthenning is a municipality in the district of Dingolfing-Landau in Bavaria in Germany....
).