Living picture books

Magnificent ‘Lüftlmalereien’ (ornate, hand-painted mural artworks) from the 18th century adorn the facades of houses in the Upper Bavarian villages of Mittenwald and Oberammergau. To keep it that way, true craftsmanship is required.

In the middle of the peaceful village of Oberammergau, a drama is playing out. Soldiers are scurrying over stairways, Jesus is being judged by Pilatus, men wearing turbans gesticulate wildly, and someone else flies through the air. Here, on the facade of the ‘Pilatus House’ in 1784, Franz Seraph Zwinck shows off all the facets of his art. He plays with perspectives, constructs false columns – and transforms the architecturally simple building into a turbulent, populated stage. After all, the roses, phlox and boxwood hedges in front of the house are certainly real.

Even in ancient times, rich merchants garnished their homes with figures, decorative elements, and illusionary architecture. Inspiration came from Italy to Upper Bavaria, where the cities were colorful image spaces from the beginning of the Renaissance period to the late Baroque era. At the start of the 18th century, the rural communities in the Karwendel area lay on a vital trade route between Venice to Augsburg, known as the “Rottstrasse”.

The villages of Mittenwald and Oberammergau served as central goods handling and stacking positions. Local traders, farmers, and craftsmen prospered. Education and an openness to the world grew in the villages. Traders told of the fantastic wall paintings they had seen in larger towns. ‘Lüftlmalerei’ originated in the Werdenfelser Land in Upper Bavaria and continues to Tirol. 

Franz Karner (1738–1817) in Mittenwald and Franz Seraph Zwinck (1748–1792) in Oberammergau grew up together, as two gifted craftsmen and artists in the area. 

The “flight into Egypt” is also a popular theme, something that Zwinck’s fellow artist Karner painted on multiple occasions. The popularity of this scene is probably explained through its proximity to the reality of life of the tradespeople, who, like the Holy family, often left their home and had to travel to distant destinations. Horses and carts, hunting, and sundials were some of the everyday items and scenes that also graced the buildings.

While Zwinck placed his mock architecture across entire facades, Karner preferred to stick to the surface. In 1786, after traveling through the Alps, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe referred to Mittenwald as a “living picture book”.

Regard and restore

Michael Ertl took on the Lüftlmalen painting work himself. There is no official training for this. “It takes courage, certainty, and zest,” he says of the most important prerequisites for Baroque facade painting.

“The stroke has to flow; I can never falter.” Ertl gestures a flourish into the air. “And in no case must I be too precise. The pictures are loosely dotted on. Eyes, for example, are only painted on as small black chunks in the middle of faces.

From a distance, this appears precise, but the charm lies within its slightly improvised nature. For false marble I do irregular lines on the base color shade. Up close, that looks almost sloppy. But from a few meters back, it looks almost like the real thing.”

But Ertl doesn’t turn to the old fresco techniques anymore. “It’s no longer affordable to do it that way,” he laments. “I paint on dry plaster, so I have a little more time and am not so dependent on the weather. Unfortunately, the images don’t last as long as those that were painted on the damp underlayers.”