STUDIENGEBÄUDE ALPENSTRASSE
Alpenstraße 75
5020 Salzburg

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E Mag. Peter Husty
T +43-662-62 08 08-702
F +43-662-62 08 08-720


 

THE ROSSACHER COLLECTION

History

The Rossacher Collection is devoted to the Baroque art of preparatory design and was compiled between the 1950s and the 1970s. At first, Kurt Rossacher (1918–1988, scholar in German studies, art historian and art dealer) and his wife Else (1919–1995) collected without any plan. Enjoyment was their only motive from the start. In 1970, Kurt Rossacher transferred the collection to the City and Land of Salzburg on the condition of establishing an autonomous museum for it. The opening of the Salzburg Baroque Museum in the former orangery of the Mirabell Gardens took place on 23 July 1973. In 2012, the Rossacher Collection was integrated into the Salzburg Museum; the outside branch was closed on 2 September 2012.

Collection range

Designs can take the form of oil sketches and hand drawings, also sculptor’s models (“bozzetti”) in clay or wood. They act as the creative initial spark firing new works of art or commissions and are almost always small in format. To understand their essence better certain concepts can help, such as “The Birth of a Work of Art” or “Prima Idea” – the initial idea, the initial image (for an artwork). Many a design was a kind of “job application”, created to convince a possible patron. From the artistic point of view they involve swift sketches, to wit, “thrown-down” thoughts (German for “design” is “entwerfen”, to “throw away”.) This spontaneous, impulsive and simultaneously expressive element makes a very "modern" impression, even after 300 years.

Inventory Overview

The collection consists of 139 oil sketches, 164 hand drawings, 42 sculptor’s bozzetti and 9 artefacts from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Most of the objects are allotted to the Italian art scene. The collection contains works by Peter Paul Rubens, Luca Giordano, Paul Troger, Johann Michael Rottmayr, Martino Altomonte, Carlo Innocenzo Carlone and Michael Zürn the Younger. Since the collection focus is on the artistic sketch or design, only few graphic works are found in this collection. Pre-eminent exceptions are The Princely Master Builder by Paul Decker and the treatise “Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum” by Andrea Pozzo.

New acquisitions

The Rossacher Collection was in part bequeathed, in part purchased by the City and Land of Salzburg as a life annuity. Several artworks were purchased with the museum’s own funds. 2015 saw the purchase of the last work of art.

Transparency and function

Every year and a half, the Salzburg Museum puts on thematic exhibitions with the Rossacher Collection in the North Oratory of the Salzburg Cathedral, part of the DomQuartier in Salzburg. Moreover, the museum is pleased to loan individual objects to special exhibitions. 

Publishing the latest research results and increasing overall visibility of the collection are one focus of the scientific journal BAROCKBERICHTE. Informationsblätter zur bildenden Kunst des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts (founded by Franz Wagner).
  

Image gallery

The Fall of the Angels, Johann Michael Rottmayr, 1697, oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0026 bozzetto for an altarpiece; executed as altar painting in the palace chapel of Tittmoning
The Fall of the Angels, Johann Michael Rottmayr, 1697, oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0026 bozzetto for an altarpiece; executed as altar painting in the palace chapel of Tittmoning
Christ’s Resurrection and Victory over Death and Hell, Paul Troger, ca. 1745, oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0036; probably model for the lost fresco in the cemetery church of St. Niklas in Vienna
Christ’s Resurrection and Victory over Death and Hell, Paul Troger, ca. 1745, oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0036; probably model for the lost fresco in the cemetery church of St. Niklas in Vienna
Zephyr and Flora, design for a tapestry, Charles Philippe Amédée Van Loo (Vanloo), oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0047; execution as oil painting in Fontainebleau
Zephyr and Flora, design for a tapestry, Charles Philippe Amédée Van Loo (Vanloo), oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0047; execution as oil painting in Fontainebleau
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, Peter Paul Rubens, 1628, oil on oak wood, inv. no. RO 0357; one of the designs for the high altarpiece in the Augustinian Church in Antwerp
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, Peter Paul Rubens, 1628, oil on oak wood, inv. no. RO 0357; one of the designs for the high altarpiece in the Augustinian Church in Antwerp
Austria Receives Homage from the Land of Upper Austria, Carlo Innocenzo Carlone, oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0374; modello for a ceiling fresco (1717) in the Linz Landhaus (destroyed)
Austria Receives Homage from the Land of Upper Austria, Carlo Innocenzo Carlone, oil on canvas, inv. no. RO 0374; modello for a ceiling fresco (1717) in the Linz Landhaus (destroyed)
Lot and his Daughters, Jakob Gabriel Mollinarolo, terracotta, inv. no. RO 0511; bozzetto, no known execution
Lot and his Daughters, Jakob Gabriel Mollinarolo, terracotta, inv. no. RO 0511; bozzetto, no known execution
Equestrian Monument of Emperor Constantine the Great, Gianlorenzo Bernini, terracotta, vestiges of gilding, inv. no. RO 0523; design for the equestrian statue on the Scala Regia, St. Peter’s in Rome
Equestrian Monument of Emperor Constantine the Great, Gianlorenzo Bernini, terracotta, vestiges of gilding, inv. no. RO 0523; design for the equestrian statue on the Scala Regia, St. Peter’s in Rome
Angel, Michael Zürn the Younger, lime wood, inv. no. RO 0539; executed in Untersberg marble on the Candida Altar in the Abbey Church of Kremsmünster
Angel, Michael Zürn the Younger, lime wood, inv. no. RO 0539; executed in Untersberg marble on the Candida Altar in the Abbey Church of Kremsmünster
Christ is led through the Stream of Kedron, Martin Johann Schmidt (called Kremserschmidt), black chalk, pen and brown ink on paper, inv. no. RO 1071; composition design for the Garsten Lenten wall hangings, 1777
Christ is led through the Stream of Kedron, Martin Johann Schmidt (called Kremserschmidt), black chalk, pen and brown ink on paper, inv. no. RO 1071; composition design for the Garsten Lenten wall hangings, 1777
Christus as Victor over Death and Hell, Martino Altomonte, pen and bistre over lead stylus, brown wash on paper, inv. no. RO 1080; design for the tabernacle crown of the Christ Altar in the Trinity Chapel of Stadl-Paura near Lambach, 1723
Christus as Victor over Death and Hell, Martino Altomonte, pen and bistre over lead stylus, brown wash on paper, inv. no. RO 1080; design for the tabernacle crown of the Christ Altar in the Trinity Chapel of Stadl-Paura near Lambach, 1723
Altar Construction, Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer, Franz Anton Dirr, pen and ink over lead stylus, watercolour, inv. no. RO 1093; no known execution
Altar Construction, Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer, Franz Anton Dirr, pen and ink over lead stylus, watercolour, inv. no. RO 1093; no known execution
Hero of Virtue fights Vices, Daniel Seiter, pen and brown ink and iron gall ink, brown and white wash on blue dyed paper, inv. no. RO 1054; no known execution
Hero of Virtue fights Vices, Daniel Seiter, pen and brown ink and iron gall ink, brown and white wash on blue dyed paper, inv. no. RO 1054; no known execution
St. Thomas Aquinas, Johann Georg Bergmüller, pen and reddish-brown ink over metal stylus, grey wash, slight graticulation, inv. no. RO 1156; design for an altarpiece in the Collegiate Church, Salzburg
St. Thomas Aquinas, Johann Georg Bergmüller, pen and reddish-brown ink over metal stylus, grey wash, slight graticulation, inv. no. RO 1156; design for an altarpiece in the Collegiate Church, Salzburg
Salzburg Museum