Jakob Prandtauer and his art circle

In 1960, the first Lower Austrian provincial exhibition was held in Melk Abbey to mark the 300th anniversary of Jakob Prandtauer's birth. Born in 1660 in the Tyrolean mountain village of Stanz, the artist came to St. Pölten before 1690, where he lived until his death in 1726. Prandtauer created manor houses, town houses and numerous parish and pilgrimage churches, securing his fame with the planning of Herzogenburg, Dürnstein, Garsten, Kremsmünster and St. Florian Abbeys.

Melk Abbey, his most important building, provided a unique architectural setting for this exhibition. In the ceremonial rooms of the prelature, the importance of the abbey was illustrated with documents and works of art. Works by Prandtauer and his art circle were shown in the imperial rooms. In the Marble Hall, in the library and above all in the collegiate church, visitors were able to experience the complete work of art, where paintings by Beduzzi, Bibiena, Rottmayr, Altomonte, Gran, Troger and Schmidt from Krems, among others, were presented. Sculptures were on display in the garden in front of the pavilion.

“This exhibition is dedicated to an era that is one of the most fruitful and important in Austrian art”, said Minister of Education Heinrich Drimmel, and on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Jakob Prandtauer's birth, the idea of entrusting the exhibition to Melk Abbey was an obvious one.

Jakob Prandtauer, the “distinguished master builder of St. Pölten and perhaps the most distinguished in all of Austria”, as the Dürnstein provost Hieronymus Übelbacher called him in 1716, was never able to gain a foothold in the imperial capital and residence of Vienna. But “never again after him has the province of Lower Austria succeeded in developing independent architecture of such a high level of perfection and at the same time such a broad impact” (Karl Gutkas).

In 1960, the newspapers not only wrote about the splendor of the exhibit, but also about Melk Abbey: “No venue would have been more suitable”, reported “Die Presse”. The “Illustrierte Kronen Zeitung” reported that “Melk Abbey and the landscape itself are already an effective, grandiose exhibition object”, and the “Arbeiter-Zeitung” wrote: “The magnificent Melk Abbey, which dominates the Danube from its hill and has virtually become a symbol of Lower Austria, provides a brilliant setting for this exhibition.”

The results of this first Lower Austrian provincial exhibition were impressive: 382,000 visitors saw “Baroque in Austria”, one in six exhibition visitors came from abroad and one in ten bought the catalog. The net profit was used exclusively for cultural purposes, including the restoration of the Melk parish church and the Sonntagberg pilgrimage church, a work by Jakob Prandtauer.

At the ceremony to mark the end of the exhibition, Governor Johann Steinböck proudly took stock: “The Melk exhibition proved that the right feeling for the true values of culture and art is alive in all sections of the Austrian population.”

Melk Abbey