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Leygebe, Gottfried Christian
(b Freystadt, Lower Silesia, 1630; d Berlin, 1683). German die-cutter, medallist and sculptor. In 1645 he travelled to Nuremberg to train as an armourer with Albrecht Liechtmann. He specialized in engraving on iron, made contact with Georg Pfründt, an artist experienced in this technique, and developed into one of the best medallists and die-cutters of his time. In 1653 he had his own workshop as a sculptor and medallist. Sandrart praised Leygebe’s art as something extraordinary, probably on account of his claim to be able to carve statuettes from an iron block; in reality, however, the three surviving examples of Leygebe’s iron statuettes are cast. In 1659–60 he produced an equestrian statuette of Leopold I (Copenhagen, Rosenborg Slot). It was followed c. 1660–62 by an equestrian statuette of Charles II (Dresden, Grünes Gewölbe), occasioned by the restoration of the English monarchy. A portrayal of Frederick William, the Great Elector, as Bellerophon on Pegasus Vanquishing the Chimera (before 1672) is untraced; there is also a statuette of the same prince portrayed as St George Killing the Dragon (1680; Berlin, Skulpgal.).
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