HOLZER, JOHANN EVANGELIST, a distinguished German fresco-painter of the early part of the 18th century, was born at Burgeis, near Marienberg in Vintecbgau, in the Tyrol, in 1709. His father was miller to the Benedictine Convent of Marienberg, and Holzer was first introduced by N. Auer at Meran in the Tyrol He made here such extraordinary progress, that at the early age of eighteen his reputation spread far into Germany, and he was invited by the painter, J. A. Merz, to Straubing in Bavaria, to assist him in some frescoes in the convent church of Oberalteich. From Straubing Holzer went to Augsburg, where he lived six years in the house of J. G. Bergmiller, the principal painter in Augsburg at that time, from whom he learnt much io the mechanical department of painting, both in fresco and in oil. Holzer painted many excellent frescoes upon the exteriors of houses in Augsburg, but few, if any, now remain ; there is however a collection of twenty-eight prints after them by J. E. Nilson, entitled 'Pictures a Fresco in Xelibus Augustan Vinci., a J. Ilolzer,' &c. Among these frescoes, a peasant dance, upon the facade of a beer-shop, was a very popular work ; and it is spoken of in the highest terms in the letters of J. L. Bisnconi and Count Algarotti the figures were above the size of life. Holzer's greatest works how ever are the frescoes of the Benedictine church of Schwarzach near Wdrzburg; he obtained the commission to execute them by compe tition; and they wero painted in 1737, when he was only twenty-nine years of age. They are the best works that were executed at that
time in Germany; and Holzer is by some considered the founder of the new era of German fresco-painting. They are however now in a most dilapidated condition ; the church is in a ruinous state, and the convent is a paper-mill. Holzer painted the cupola and ceiling of the chnrch ; the subjects repreeeuted are—the ' Glorification of St. Benedict;' the 'Transfiguration of Christ;' the 'Martyrdom of St. Sebastian; "St. Felicita and her Seven Sons;' the ' Foundation of the Convent ; ' and the Papal Confirmation of the Foundation.' The 'Martyrdom of St. Sebastian' is described as the moat successful composition.
After the completion of these works, Holzer was invited by the prince bishop of Wiirzburg to paint his palace, for which he made the designs, but they were not quite satisfactory to the bishop. Ile was in the meanwhile invited by the Elector Clement of Cologne to paint the newly-established capuchin convent at Clemeuswerth, and he accordingly immediately prepared himself for this work. He however did not live to commence it; he died of a fever at Clemenswerth, a few days after his arrival, in July 1740, at the age of thirty.
Holzer's works are described as successful in every department of art, in invention, form, character, light and shade, and colour. He engraved a few plates. Several accounts of him have been published in Germany; the first in 1765, at Augsburg, and the last in tho Tyrol in 1334.