Peter Anton Abesch
Born in 1703.
Died in 1735.
Swiss · Reverse painting on glass of the Sursee school, Central Switzerland, early 18th century
A Swiss reverse-glass painter and churchman, Peter Anton Abesch belonged to the artistic dynasty that made Sursee a major centre of this medium in Central Switzerland. The son of Johann Peter Abesch and brother of Anna Barbara Abesch, he worked within a family tradition devoted to translating religious, biblical and secular prints into paintings on glass.
His craft was learned in the environment of his father’s workshop. The surviving works demonstrate a secure command of the demanding reverse-glass process, in which outlines, details, highlights and layers of colour are applied in the opposite order to their final appearance. His manner shares the miniature-like precision, thin paint layers and delicate luminosity associated with the Sursee school.
Studies in Solothurn, Lucerne and Strasbourg preceded his entry into the clergy. The sources also associate his ministry with Neudorf. Painting consequently remained an activity pursued alongside his religious vocation, helping to explain the small number of works that can presently be assigned to him with confidence.
These include Dionysus and Ariadne on Naxos, a small reverse painting dating from about 1720, held by the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Sursee and signed “P.A. von Esch fecit.” Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, in the Stiftung Dr. Edmund Müller at Beromünster, bears the abbreviated signature “P.A.V.E.” and demonstrates his skill in compact narrative composition.
The inclusion of the latter work in the catalogue of Glanzlichter – Die Kunst der Hinterglasmalerei, shown in Romont and Zug in 2000–2001, helped restore Peter Anton Abesch’s place in the history of reverse painting on glass. His limited surviving corpus is a rare record of the medium’s transmission from Johann Peter to the generation of Peter Anton and Anna Barbara Abesch.