Matthias Kessels

Matthias Kessels (20 May 1784 - 4 March 1836) was a Dutch sculptor who mainly worked in Brussels and Rome.

Biography

Matthias (also Matthieu or Matthijs) was born in Maastricht. He was first apprenticed to a goldsmith at Venlo but soon gave up his apprenticeship to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1806 he made his way to Saint Petersburg where he abode eight years, making silver and wax models and sculptures of various kinds. In 1815 he returned briefly to Maastricht and then spent several months at Anne-Louis Girodet's studio in Paris, where he exhibited at the Salon of 1819.

Finally, having decided to go to Rome, he was accepted as an apprentice of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. In a competition for young artists, organized by Venetian sculptor Antonio Canova, Kessels won the highest award with his terracotta Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows, a piece of frank and beautiful workmanship. In Rome he was a member of the Academy of St. Luke and of the Institute of the Netherlands, in Antwerp and Amsterdam (1824) he was a member of the academies.

Among his numerous classically minded patrons was William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, who commissioned two marble bas-reliefs, Day and Night (1819), and Diskobolos Preparing to Throw (1828; all Chatsworth House). Other patrons included the Duke of Alba (Reclining disk thrower, now in the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome, and Cupid whetting his darts) and the Prince of Orange (Paris resting, a colossal marble for which Kessels received the Order of Leopold, now at the palace of Laeken). In the late 1820s Kessels renounced the pure classicism of Thorvaldsen in favour of the more seductive style of Canova and the pathos of the Italian Baroque, as in his Monument to the Comtesse de Celles (marble, 1828; Rome, Chiesa di San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi). The romantic emphasis of his Flood Scene (plaster, c. 1833) differentiates it from the works of his last period, which are imbued with religious sentimentality (Christ at the column, The four Evangelists, a bas relief of the head of Christ the Saviour, busts of Christ and the Virgin Mary and a Pietà). Some of his other lesser works include Woman weeping over an urn, The genius of Art and a bust of Admiral Tromp. In Rome Kessels taught the Liege sculptors Louis Jehotte (c. 1803-84) and Eugene Simonis, who exerted an influence through their teaching at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. A bronze copy of his Disk thrower is in the gardens of the Palais des Académies in Brussels.

Matthias Kessels died in Rome while he was working on Saint Michael overcoming the Hydra of Anarchy for the church of Saint Gudula, now Brussels cathedral. On Kessels's death his studio, having been inventoried by Thorvaldsen, was acquired by the Belgian government and transferred to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. The museum owns several plaster sculptures by Kessels: Discobole lançant le disque, Génie funèbre éteignant un flambeau, Monument funeraire de la comtesse (1832) and Scène du déluge ^[1] (±1832-1835).

In our days, Kessels is no longer regarded as a major artist but he was famous in his time. As he belonged to the Roman school of neoclassical sculpture, founded by Canova and Thorvaldsen, along with Johann Gottfried Schadow, Albert Wolff and others, he strictly adhered to idealist aesthetics and to the laws prescribed by classical art.

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  Diskobolos Preparing to Throw (Chatsworth House)

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  Genie of death putting out the flame (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels)

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  Deluge scene (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels)

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  Tomb of the countess of Celles (Church of San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi, Rome)

References

1. ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettdunnam/3305267088/

Sources

• "Matthias Kessels". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08629b.htm. 
• Ubachs, P.J.H. & Evers, I.M.H., Historische Encyclopedie Maastricht (2005)

Persondata
Name	Kessels, Matthias
Alternative names
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Date of birth	20 May 1784
Place of birth
Date of death	4 March 1836
Place of death