Anton Dominik Fernkorn

Anton Dominick Ritter von Fernkorn (March 17, 1813 in Erfurt – November 16, 1878 in Vienna) was a German-Austrian sculptor.

Fernkorn studied sculpture under the sculptors Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and Ludwig Michael Schwanthaler in Munich, 1836-40. His first sculptural project, “Saint George and the Dragon” for the courtyard of the Montenuovo palace, attracted attention, and the Austrian government appointed him director of the imperial bronze foundry at Vienna, in 1840, where he was part of the rebellion against the Neo-Classicism of that time and place. For the Cathedral of Speyer, in 1858 he completed six of the eight free-stone statues of the German emperors buried there.

He rediscovered Baroque sculpture and used it as the basis for his equestrian statue of Archduke Charles (1859), who had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Aspern in 1809. In this work Fernkorn skillfully executed the difficult task of creating a monumentally sized equestrian statue with the horse (and rider) successfully balanced on the horse's two rear legs.

His equestrian monument of Prince Eugene of Savoy is less successful and by the time of its unveiling in 1865, Fernkorn's mental illness made it impossible for him to produce any more work.

Fernkorn is well remembered for his portraits, and these include a bust of the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and the funerary bust of Carl Ludwig Freiherr von Bruck (1862). He was also a noted animalier, producing works such as the Lion of Aspern in Vienna.

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