BARTHEL, Melchior. – Sculptor, born in Dreda in 1625, died on 12 November 1672. He traveled throughout Europe; besides other Italian cities, he was in Rome and then in Venice. There he remained for 17 years, leaving numerous works in which he followed the Berninian style (the Pesaro tomb in Santa Maria dei Frari, a tomb in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the statue of Saint John the Baptist in the oratory of Santa Maria di Nazareth). In 1670 he returned to Dresden and was appointed court sculptor.
BIBL.: Anon., s.V. in Thieme-Becker, II, p. 547. For works in Venice, cf. G. Lorenzetti, Venezia, Venezia n.d., pp. 122, 296, 319, 330, 430, 534, 744.