RT Article
T1 David Renatus Nitschmann (1748-1777): Lebensbild eines „Herrnhuters“ als Zeichner in Diensten der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu St. Petersburg
JF Unitas Fratrum
VO 77
SP 157
OP 168
A1 Kröger, Rüdiger 1967-
LA German
YR 2018
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1916948448
AB David Renatus Nitschmann (1748-1778), who came from a family of Moravian exiles, had a remarkable gift for drawing. The Moravians did their best to develop his artistic abilities: after a decent schooling, which included lessons in drawing, he was given the opportunity' to observe and work with artists and artistic craftsmen, among them David Röntgen in Neuwied. His secular mindset was often a cause of irritation, however. The final attempt to retain him within the Moravians' ranks, under the oversight of his father, failed in Sarepta on the Volga. Thus, unlike many of his relatives, he did not find his spiritual home and life's work within the Moravian Church. Instead he entered the service of the St Petersburg professors S. G. Gmelin and P. S. Pallas, who visited Sarepta, as a documentary' draughtsman. He died in St Petersburg aged only thirty. Many of his natural history and ethnographic drawings served until the beginning of the nineteenth century' as templates for the elaborate illustrations in the works of von Gmelin and Pallas. With his depictions, which rested on precise observation, D. R. Nitschmann, together with his colleagues, made a not insignificant contribution to knowledge of nature and culture in the Volga region at a time when the extensive Russian empire was being opened up. Even today their value is undiminished.
K1 Artists
K1 Exiles
K1 GMELIN, Samuel Gottlieb
K1 Moravian Church
K1 Moravians
K1 Nitschmann, David
K1 PALLAS, P. S
DO 10.71704/unfr.v77i.95962