Unionsgatan 29
☒
(Helsingin Tuomiokirkko - Cathedral of Helsinki)
Luther, Melanchton ja Agricola
Luther, Melanchton and Agricola
Various sculptors
1886
Description
Three plaster statues in the church interior:
m. luther - Martin Luther (Eisleben 1483 - Eisleben 1546),
German priest and professor of theology who initiated the Protestant Reformation
(Wikipedia).
f. melanchton- Phillipp Melanchthon born Philipp Schwartzerdt (Bretten 1497 - Wittenberg 1560),
German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation
(Wikipedia).
m. agricola - Mikael Agricola Michael Olaui or Mikkel Olofsson (Finnish: Mikael Olavinpoika) (Torsby, Uusima c. 1510 - Uusikirkko (now Polyane) 1557),
Finnish clergyman; the de facto founder of written Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden (Wikipedia).
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Annotation
The statues of Luther and Melanchton are enlarged plaster copies of the Worms Luther monument, created in 1868 by Ernst Rietschel (Melanchton was sculpted by Gustav Kietz). The copies were received in Helsinki in 1886. The enlargements made in Paris remained smaller than expected, because of a measuring error, but sculptor, Karl Magnus von Wright, remedied the situation by making pedestals for the statues. The statue of the father of the Reformation in Finland and the Finnish literary language, Mikael Agricola, is the handiwork of Ville Vallgren.
Sculptors
Gustav Adolph Kietz (Leipzig 1824 - Dresden-Laubegast 1908),
German sculptor
(Wikipedia).
Ernst Rietschel (Pulsnitz 1804 - Dresden 1861),
German sculptor - see also his memorial in Dresden
(Wikipedia).
Carl Wilhelm 'Ville' Vallgren, originally Wallgren (Porvoo 1855 - Helsinki 1940),
Finnish sculptor, who worked for a long time in Paris
(Wikipedia).
