The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Knabl, Joseph

KNABL, knä´b'l, Joseph, Austrian sculptor: b. Fliess, Tyrol, 17 July 1819; d. Munich, 3 Nov. 1881. As son of a peasant he learned carving with F. Renn in Imst. He went to Munich in 1836 and studied wood-carvings of the Middle Ages under J. Otto Entres and, later, Sickinger, when he worked on images of saints. Working independently from 1842, he created the heroic size group &lsquo;Baptism of Christ&rsquo; for the Mergentheim Church, Württemberg (1852); several statues for the cathedral altar at Augsburg (1854); &lsquo;Christ and the Apostles,&rsquo; a life-sized group for the high altar at Velden, Lower Bavaria (1855). His group of Saints Ann and Mary for the Eistatt Cathedral was awarded a prize at the Munich Exposition in 1858. His chef-d'œuvre is considered to be a &lsquo;Coronation of Man&rsquo; for the Munich Frauenkirche high altar. He was appointed professor of sculpture (1862) in the Munich Academy.