GUNTHER, IGNAZ

born 1725, Altmannstein, Bavaria died 1775, Munich Guardian Angel, painted wood sculpture by Ignaz Gnther, 1763; in the sculptor who was one of the leading Rococo artists in Germany. His career was centred in Munich, where he settled in 1754. Most of his sculpture was carved from wood and then polychromed. Stylistically, his often ecstatic figures are characterized by elegant gestures, elongated proportions, and the cutting angular arrangement of the folds of their clothing or drapery. Among the finest of his sculptures are the Annunciation and Piet (1764) in the abbey church at Weyarn, Bavaria; the statues in the church at Rott-am-Inn, Bavaria; the famed Guardian Angel in the Brgersaal, Munich (1763; see photograph); and the Piet in the cemetery chapel at Nenningen, Bavaria (1774).