Ignaz Günther (1725-1775) was the foremost German rococo sculptor. His elongated forms and pastel polychromy combine Viennese sophistication and the gaiety of Bavarian folk art.

Ignaz Günther was born in Altmannstein near Ingolstadt on Nov. 22, 1725, the son of a cabinetmaker and sometime sculptor, who was also his first teacher. Günther was sent to Munich in 1743 and apprenticed to the sculptor Johann Baptist Straub, who had a large workshop and trained many artists. In 1750 Günther set out as a journeyman, going first to Salzburg and then to Mannheim, where he worked with Paul Egell, whose dramatic style he admired greatly, until Egell's death in 1752. Günther then enrolled at the academy in Vienna in early 1753, with Mathias Donner, brother of the great Georg Raphael Donner, among his teachers, and in November he won a first prize.

Günther returned...