(b Bad Mergentheim, nr Würzburg, 1585; d Schwaz, nr Innsbruck, 3 Dec 1674). Austrian sculptor of German birth. After training with his father, a goldsmith, and from 1600 to 1602 as an apprentice embosser at the court of Archduke Maximilian III in Bad Mergentheim, he followed his patron and teacher, Hubert Gerhard, to Innsbruck, where he remained a member of Gerhard’s workshop until 1606. By 1610 Gras had obtained the post of Court Embosser and, after Gerhard’s departure for Munich in 1613, he received most of the court’s commissions, including the bronze memorial of Maximilian III (1615–19; Innsbruck Cathedral). The life-size kneeling statue of Maximilian III and the standing St George, together with the elaborate naturalistic decorations of the baldachino-like base, were designed by Gras and cast by his frequent collaborator, Heinrich Reinhart (c. 1570–1629). Gras’s finest project was the monumental Leopold Fountain (1623–30) in the Rennweg, Innsbruck. It is surmounted by the equestrian statue of Archduke Leopold V (d 1632), the first Baroque statue of this kind in Austria, while various river deities and allegorical figures are set around the base and bowl.

• Gras, Caspar
  • patrons and collectors
    • Habsburg, §I: (13) Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, Count of Tyrol
  • teachers
    • Gerhard, Hubert, §1(iii): Free-standing, relief & dec. sculp. in Mergentheim & Innsbruck, after 1597
  • works
    • Austria, §IV, 2: Sculpture, c 1400–c 1600: Late Gothic and Renaissance
    • Equestrian monument, §3: High Renaissance and Baroque
    • Germany, §IV, 3(ii)(a): Sculpture, c 1600–c 1750: Southern Germany
    • Innsbruck, §1(ii): History and urban development, 1420–1665
    • Innsbruck, §2: Art life and organization