LENZ, DESIDERIUS

Benedictine architect and sculptor who founded the school of beuronese art; b. Peter Lenz, in Haigerloch, March 12, 1832; d. Beuron, Jan. 28, 1928. After a sculpture course at Munich Academy (1850–58), Lenz was professor at the Nuremberg Artistic Handicrafts School until 1862. He studied in Italy until 1865 and was profoundly influenced by Egyptian art through the publications of the Egyptologist K. R. Lepsius. In 1872 he entered Beuron as artist oblate and was sent to Monte Cassino for his novitiate; he took vows in 1878 (subdiaconate, 1891; choir monk, 1892). Lenz together with Gabriel (Jakob) Wüger founded the Beuron art school in 1894; its purpose was to achieve a renewal of sacred art in a time of overriding naturalism. For this purpose Lenz developed an aesthetic geometry based on his observation of Egyptian art. In his studies he sought for the primordial dimensions of the human body, in order to create a "dogma-grounded religious art," which was his understanding of ancient art. In this spirit, between 1868 and 1871, Lenz built and decorated with frescoes the St. Maur Chapel near Beuron aided by his friends Gabriel Wüger and Luke (Fridolin) Steiner. In 1872 he remodeled the baroque Beuron monastery church, eliminating the high altar with J. A. Feuchtmayer's "Assumption." In later years Lenz and the Beuron school planned and directed extensive projects in the Abbey of Monte Cassino. Frescoes were painted in the tower (1876–80, 1885–93), and the crypt was decorated with mosaics (1898–1913). Decorations were carried out also in the churches of Maredsous, Belgium (1892), and of Emmaus (1881–91) and St. Gabriel (1891–99) in Prague.

Bibliography: d. lenz, Zur Ästhetik der Beuroner Schule (2d ed. Beuron 1927). g. schwind, P. Desiderius Lenz (Beuron 1932). m. dreesbach, "P. Desiderius Lenz von Beuron: Theorie und Werk," Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige 68 (1957): 95–183; 69 (1958): 5–59. s. mayer, Beuroner Bibliographie, 1863–1963 (Beuron 1963) 161–164.

[u. engelmann]