The New International Encyclopædia/Knabl, Joseph

KNABL, knä´b'l, Joseph (1819-81). An Austrian sculptor, born at Fliess, Tyrol. The son of a poor peasant, he tended cattle when a boy, was first instructed by the wood-carver Franz Renn at Imst, and afterwards in Munich by Entres and Anselm Sickinger. Deeply interested in mediæval German wood-sculpture, the revival of which he made his chief aim, he studied its best specimens in Bavaria, Tyrol, and on the Rhine, and afterwards produced in Munich a series of sterling works in wood and marble, the most remarkable of which is the “Coronation of Mary,” on the high altar in the Frauenkirche. He was a member of the Academy, at which a special chair was created for him in 1863, and for many years was director of Meyer's Institute for Ecclesiastic Art. — His son Karl (1850—), born in Munich, first practiced sculpture under his father's tuition, but became a genre painter as a pupil of Piloty. His effective and frequently humorous genre scenes include “The Robbed Miser” (1874), “An Undiscovered Genius” (1879), and “Poachers” (1891).