Johann Joseph Mildner

1765 Studená, Böhmen - 1808 Gutenbrunn

  • Title Beaker with diamond-point engraving and Saint Rosalia
  • Date Gutenbrunn, Lower Austria, dated 1806
  • Dimensions Height 11.3 cm
  • Provenance Collection Rudolf Just, Prague
  • Provenance Johann Joseph Mildner
  • Literature Pazaurek/Philippovich, Gläser der Empire- und Biedermeierzeit, Braunschweig 1976, p. 303, ill. 290 - gleiches Motiv; MAK 2017, Gläser der Empire- und Biedermeierzeit aus der Sammlung des MAK und der Glassammlung Kuhn, Vienna 2016, p. 35 - several cups with depictions of saints
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Johann Joseph Mildner (Kaltenbach 1765-1808 Gutenbrunn)

According to Gustav Pazaurek, the glasses decorated by Johann Joseph Mildner are ‘among the most exquisite and delicate creations of the art of glass ennoblement not only of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but of all time ’1. Mildner, who brought the intermediate gold decoration to its highest artistic and technical perfection, was originally from Kaltenberg in the Bohemian Giant Mountains region. In 1779, however, suffering from economic hardship, his family moved from Kaltenberg to Gutenbrunn in the Lower Austrian Waldviertel region, where they eventually worked as glass cutters for the nobleman Joseph Weber Edler von Fürnberg. Most probably, Johann Joseph himself only followed his family to Gutenbrunn after having completed his apprenticeship and journeyman‘s years. His works are rare, unique pieces of the highest quality.

The legend of Saint Rosalia

Rosalia was born c. 1150 as the daughter of the high aristocrats in Palermo. Very early in her life, she turned her back on the wealth of her family and started living as an hermit in a cave on a mountain near Palermo. She dedicated her life to helping the poor. Very soon after her death, the pilgrims went to the cave. In the 13th century, she was, alongside Saint Olivia, one of the patronesses of Palermo. In the year 1625 during the pest epedemic, her undecayed body was found in the cave and brought to the dome of Palermo, where she was burried. Her cave "Sanctuaria die Santa Rosalia" is still a destination of the pilgrimage.