DONNER, GEORG RAPHAEL. - Austrian sculptor, b. at Esslingen on 24 May 1693, d. at Vienna on 15 Feb. 1741. A pupil from 1706 of Giovanni Giuliani at Heiligenkreuz, in 1715 he was in Vienna, where he returned after having also worked at Salisburgo (1725–28) and at Presburgo.
D. is undoubtedly, in the field of Austrian sculpture, the most significant representative of the anti-Baroque, specifically anti-Berninian tendency, which in Austria, as in other European regions, would help to ease the way for the Neoclassical ideals that were clearly to assert themselves toward the end of the eighteenth century. At times D. cast his figures in lead, which enabled him to achieve remarkably soft effects.
His principal works are, besides the decoration of the staircase of Mirabello Castle at Salisburgo, in Vienna the “Providence” fountain at the Neuer Markt, whose sculptures, like others, such as Charles V and Fame, are now preserved in the Barockmuseum. At Presburgo, the high altar of the church of S. Martino; and in the cathedral of Gurk, the Pietà on the altar of the Cross (1741) and the panels of the pulpit.