page_title: Frans Geffels
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Frans Geffels / Life
context_page_description: Frans Geffels, known in Italy as Francesco Geffels was a Flemish painter, printmaker, architect, stage designer and designer of ephemeral structures for solemn and festive occasions. After training in his native Antwerp, he was mainly active in Mantua, where he was prefetto delle fabbriche to the Duke, a role that gave him the direction of the artistic and construction activities undertaken by the Ducal court. He worked also on projects for the local aristocratic class of Mantua. In addition, he completed projects for the Liechtenstein princes and for the imperial court in Vienna.
  He was both a canvas and fresco painter. He created portraits, history subjects, military scenes, architectural scenes and genre art, in particular merry companies. Geffels is mainly remembered as the designer of some of the key examples of Baroque architecture in Mantua.
context_section_description: He was born in Antwerp as the son of a laborer in a sugar refinery and a mother who operated a cheese shop.  He trained in the guild year 1635/36 with Daniel Middeleer (also called Daniel Middeler and Daniël de Middelaer).  Middeleer was a painter, printmaker and publisher.  Geffels became a master in the local Guild of St. Luke some time between 18 September 1645 and 18 September 1646.  By 1653 he was already abroad for some time. 
  He was likely recruited to work in Mantua in 1659, by his fellow Flemish painter and architect Daniel van den Dyck. Van den Dyck had been appointed by duke Carlo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua as the prefetto delle fabbriche ('Prefect of the Buildings'), a position which combined the duties of official court painter, architect, surveyor of the Ducal construction program and engineer for  for theatrical stage design. Geffels was working as an architect at the court.
  Geffens spent some time in Vienna in 1660-1661 where he worked for the Imperial Court. He returned to Mantua where he became, like van den Dyck before him, prefetto delle fabbriche of the duke of Mantua in 1663. He took the place of his compatriot van den Dyck had died in the previous year.  In 1664 Geffens was granted citizenship of Mantua. He was described in official records as an artist who was skilled in creating devices for the theatre.
  Geffels remained in the service of the Dukes of Mantua for 30 years.  He worked in 1667 in Vienna on commissions for Karl Eusebius, Prince of Liechtenstein.  There existed a close relationship between the Viennese court and the dukes of Mantua through marital links. The Empress Dowager Eleonora Gonzaga (1630–1686) was the third wife of Emperor Ferdinand III and the sister of Charles II Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers. He also participated on a book containing the libretto by Francesco Sbarra for the opera Il pomo d'oro scored by Antonio Cesti, which was staged twice in July 1668 on the occasion of the marriage of Emperor Leopold I and Margaret Theresa of Spain.  The book was illustrated with prints depicting the various sets used during the staging of the opera.  The folio de luxe edition of the book holds a print designed and etched by Geffels showing the opera's performance with Emperor Leopold I and his bride in attendance. The theatre in which the opera was staged had been purpose-built on the occasion of the couple's wedding after a design by Ludovico Ottavio Burnacini. The theatre was destroyed during the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 and Geffens' print now serves as the sole evidence of the interior layout of the theatre. In the print, the imperial family is shown sitting at the front. In the foreground there is a row of soldiers.  Geffels had himself worked on the illusionist ceiling paintings for the court theatre, which are also shown in the print. 
  Even after his return to Mantua later in 1668, Geffels maintained contact with the Viennese court, as evidenced by his collaboration on the three-volume book by Gualdo Priorato with the title Historia di Leopoldo Cesare and also by his paintings depicting the Relief of Vienna in 1683 (Wien Museum Karlsplatz) and the Retaking of Buda in 1686 (Hungarian National Museum).
  Geffens' official duties at the Mantua court included the design and execution of ephemeral objects and structures used on the occasion of important court-related events.  In January 1666 he collaborated with Andrea Seghizzi on the decorations and objects made for the funeral of Duke Charles II Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers in the Basilica palatina di Santa Barbara in Mantua.  When in 1776 Empress Claudia Felicitas of Austria died in Vienna not long after giving birth, her aunt Isabella Clara of Austria, Duchess of Mantua, had a funeral mass performed in the church of the Mothers of St. Ursula of Mantua, where the Duchess had become a Poor Clare nun. Frans Geffels was commissioned to design and construct a funeral monument that was set up in the middle of the church during the mass.  It was mounted on four large marble-coloured pedestals, adorned on the top front with imperial eagles in lo
caption: Portrait of Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga
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