Schmalzl, Maximilian

SCHMALZL, MAXIMILIAN. - Painter, lay brother of the Redemptorists, b. at Falkenstein (Bavaria), on 7 July 1850, d. in the convent of Gars (Bavaria) on 7 Jan. 1930.

The tenth child of a large family, he learned the art of painter and sculptor first at Regensburg, then at Munich, where he also attended the Higher Institute of Applied Arts. On 20 May 1872 he took the habit of the Redemptorists at Gars, making his profession there on 20 July 1878 and devoting himself chiefly to art. By Fr. G. Schober, liturgical editor of the Pustet house of Regensburg, he was led to the decoration of liturgical books, his greatest glory. He illuminated a missal for Pius IX (1877), designed the flower alphabet for the Pustet missals and an enormous number of engravings for the liturgical books of the said house, which pleased Bl. Pius X so much that he entrusted to S. the decoration of the Vatican liturgical books. S. prepared the sketches for the gradual in 1904-1906, for the antiphonary in 1908-12, and those for the pontifical which was then not printed (preserved in the Vatican Library). He also frescoed various churches and designed the cartoons for the decoration of others, not to mention the almost innumerable minor works. As a religious he was exemplary and virtuous. From 1924, on account of his advanced age and failing health, he had to give up his beloved art. His artistic production won great admiration for more than half a century, above all for the spirit of profound religiosity that pervades it.

Giuseppe Löw