Dominikus Zimmermann

Dominikus Zimmermann (born June 30, 1685, Gaispoint, near Wessobrunn, Bavaria [Germany]—died November 16, 1766, Wies, near Steingaden) was a Bavarian Baroque architect and stuccoist whose church at Wies is considered one of the finest accomplishments of Baroque architecture.

Zimmermann was taught stuccowork by Johann Schmutzer and initially worked as a stuccoist. His earliest independent building design is the Dominican convent church at Mödingen (1716–21), in which he was aided by his brother Johann Baptist Zimmermann (1680–1758), a notable Bavarian court stuccoist and a fresco painter.

A considerable portion of Zimmermann’s career was spent in the building of two Gesamtkunstwerke (“total art works”) for which he and his brother designed and executed nearly every aspect of construction and decoration. Both are pilgrimage churches. The first, in Steinhausen (now in Baden-Württemberg), was begun in 1727. The floor plan is an oval, with 10 slender freestanding piers supporting a vault painted in exemplary style by Zimmermann’s brother. This structure has been regarded by some as the first truly Rococo church because of its light, airy structure and its delicately coloured, flowing, undulating decorations in coloured stucco and painted frescoes.

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Artists, Painters, & Architects

The second church, at the Bavarian village of Wies (1746–54), has a rather drab and demure exterior but an interior even richer than that of Steinhausen. The plan is again oval, with eight piers supporting a sumptuous entablature and vault, decorated this time with unmistakably Rococo motifs and a delicate ceiling fresco by Johann Baptist. The interior is remarkable for the rich colour harmonies and the swirling, controlled movement of its decoration, which obliterates the previously clearly demarcated zones of pillar, capital, entablature, and vault.

Upon his retirement in 1752, Zimmermann chose Wies as his home.