Background
Ballenberger was born at Ansbach on 24 July 1801, the son of a carpenter.
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Karl Ballenberger
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended a drawing school and worked as decorator in a porcelain factory in Bruckberg, before becoming a stonemason. Ballenberger then attended the city"s Academy.
Career
In 1831 he moved to Munich, where he was instructed in drawing by Friedrich Hoffstadt, a collector of medieval art who later published his Gotisches A-B-C Buch with illustrations by himself and Ballenberger. During his period in Munich he carved the ornaments on the Gothic tower of the church at at Nördlingen, and also painted a stained glass window in the choir there. In 1833 he moved to Frankfurt am Main with Hoffstadt.
When Veit resigned from the Kunstinstitut, Ballenberger, with a group of other students, followed him to the Deutsche Haus in Sachsenhausen.
Ballenberger made a close study of early German art, and painted in an archaic, medievalising style. He was commissioned to paint four portraits, those of Conrad I, Ludwig of Bavaria, Günther von Schwarzburg and Rupert of the Palatinate, for the Imperial Hall of the "Römer", at Frankfurt.
He also painted a large picture for the city of Augsburg, depicting the history of the Reformation there. Other works included series of scenes from legendary, historical, literary or religious subjects, sometimes on canvas or wood, and sometimes in watercolour on paper.
He etched a plate of the arms of artists.
His Death of Saint Meinrad was engraved by H. Nüsser. He died at Frankfurt on 21 September 1860.
