250th anniversary of death - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1991 - 4.50 Shilling

On May 24, 1693, Raphael Donner was born the son of a carpenter in Eßling - today a part of the 22nd district of Vienna. He learned the goldsmith's craft and came at the age of 13 as an apprentice to the sculptor Giovanni Giuliani. First successes he celebrated with the Martinsgruppe in Bratislava. His most famous work is the Donnerbrunnen am Neuen Markt in Vienna. The lead work was completed in 1739. The art-historical tradition that Thunder drew from this design was Mannerism. Shortly after the completion of the Pieta for the Gurk Cathedral, Raphael Donner died on February 15, 1741 in Vienna. Removed from the Chastity Commission Providentia, enthroned on top of the fountain, is surrounded by four figures symbolizing the rivers Enns, Traun, Ybbs and March. During the Maria Theresian government, the Chastity Commission - a sort of secret police responsible for overseeing public morality - objected to this work of art because the figures were largely nude. They were therefore removed in 1770 and spent the next 31 years somewhere in a depot. Then they were offered to the sculptor Johann Maria Fischer for scrap metal for lead to melt down. Fischer immediately recognized the artistic value of the characters and prompted their reinstatement. The original figures made by Georg Raphael Donner made of soft leaded walnut have been in the Baroque Museum in the Lower Belvedere since 1921, after the originals had already been replaced by bronze copies in 1873.