KNOLLER, MARTIN VON, a distinguished German painter of the 18th century, was born in the village of Steinach, in the Tyrol, in 1725. His father appears to have been a poor painter of some sort, and he intended his eon to follow his own pursuit. He was however in such circumstances s.v to make it necessary for his eon to perform the menial work of the house, which Martin appears to have found particularly distasteful. The boy accordingly ran away from his home, and found shelter in the house of Hofkammerrath von Hormwyr at Innsbruck, who, when he had heard the boy's story, let his father know of his safety, and placed him with a painter of the name of POgel, who thus became Kuoller's first master, though he can have had but the slightest influ ence upon him, if any at all. Martin's father however required his son's services in every way, and he was forced to return home, where he divided his time between the pursuit of his art, in assisting his father, and in the performance of menial domestic offices. Such was the state of affairs when circumstances brought the painter Panl Troger, on his return to Vienna, to the village of Steinach, where he saw and admired some of the extraordinary productions of Knoller, then twenty years of age. Troger perceived the lad's ability, and offered to take him with hlm to Vienna. Young Knoller went with his patron, and in eight years from that time he bad not a superior of his own age in the Austrian dominions. Already, in the years 1748.50, he assisted Troger in the frescoes of the cathedral church of Brixen ; and in 1753 he obtained the great prizo of the Austrian Academy for historical painting. In 1753 Knoller returned to the Tyrol, and in the following year painted in fresco the church of Anraas so much in the manner of Troger that it might pass for the work of that master. Troger, though correct, was cramped and formal in design and sharp in his outlines. In 1755 Knoller visited Rome, and greatly improved his style during the three years he spent in that city. From Rome he was invited to Naples by Count Firmian, the Austrian ambassador at Naples, who employed him much in that city, and in the decoration of his palace at Milan. Knoller visited Rome several times subse
quently, and contracted a close friendship with Winckelmann and with Menge. In 1764 he finished one of his principal works, the frescoes of the church of Voldera near Hall, in the Tyrol, consisting of passages from the life of San Carlo Borromeo. In 1765 he returned to Milan to his former patron, Count Firmian, whose esteem and patronage induced Knoller to make Milan his headquarters; and he there married in 1767 the daughter of a merchant, by whom he had nine children.
Knoller painted many works in Milan in oil and in fresco, the best of which is a ceiling in the palace of the Prince Belgioioso, representing the apotheosis of one of his ancestors. The palace of the Count Firmian was rich in Knoller's works. His principal German works are the frescoes of the convent-church of Ettal in the Bavarian Alps; and the seven cupolas of the church of Neresheim in 1Viirtemberg, painted in 1770-75, for which he received 22,000 florins. He painted a large fresco, 110 by 33 feet, in the town-hall at Munich, representing the Ascension of the Virgin ; and there are altarpieces by him in several chnrches in the south of Bavaria. He was much engaged also at Vienna, but chiefly in ioortrait-painting : he was there ennobled, with the title of von,' by Maria Theresa. There are many of his works in the Tyrol, at Innsbruck, Botzen, and other places. The church of his native place, Steinach, possesses three altar-pieces by Muffler. He died in 1804.
Knoller was gay in colouring, and correct and vigorous in design, and hie works are chiefly characterised for their physical qualities— dramatic and 'effective composition, strong expression, and 'vigorous and uncommon attitudes. His sphere was almost exclusively the practical part of art; the true historical and methetieal he hardly approached, but this might be said of many more eminent painters. A life of Knoller was published in the 'Beitritge zur Geschichte and Statistik von Tyrol,' for 1831.