Sculptor
Venetian (Republic of Venice)
The Venetian who peopled Mirabell. Ottavio Mosto carved the four mythological groups around the Grand Parterre fountain in 1690, each staging one of the elements as a story the archbishops wanted their guests to read as flattery: Paris carrying off Helena, Aeneas hauling his father from burning Troy, Hercules lifting Antaeus, Hades seizing Persephone. Around the same time he and Bernhard Michael Mandl carved the marble dwarves of the Zwerglgarten, grotesque portraits of real court figures. Twenty-eight originally, seventeen survive.
On the map
The 2 places on this page, where they actually stand.
Locations
Laid out c. 1730
The formal baroque gardens adjoining Mirabell Palace, freely accessible to all visitors. Franz Anton Danreiter created the definitive layout around 1730. Famous as the location where Julie Andrews performed "Do-Re-Mi" in The Sound of Music. The view toward Hohensalzburg Fortress is one of the most photographed scenes in the city.
A small walled garden within the Mirabell grounds displaying the surviving marble dwarf figures, carved around 1690 by Ottavio Mosto, Bernhard Michael Mandl and others. 28 originally, 17 today. Simultaneously grotesque, humorous, and oddly moving. Tucked behind the main garden, easily missed, and all the more rewarding for that.
