Sculptor
26 August 1802, Munich, Bavaria - 14 November 1848, Munich, Bavaria
The sculptor who gave Mozart his public face in Salzburg. Ludwig Schwanthaler created the large bronze statue at the centre of Mozartplatz, unveiled in 1842, 51 years after Mozart’s death. Mozart’s two surviving sons, Franz Xaver and Carl Thomas, were present at the unveiling.
It was one of the first major public statues erected in honour of a composer anywhere in the world. Schwanthaler, the leading Neoclassical sculptor of the Munich school and a favourite of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, died just six years later, aged 46.
Locations
Monument unveiled 1842
The Mozart statue on Mozartplatz was unveiled in 1842, sixteen years after Beethoven's death, by a committee that included Franz Schubert among its supporters, a detail that says something about how quickly Mozart's reputation had been institutionalized into civic bronze.
