Weingarten, Baden 29.6.1998: Peeping Putti and Carolingian Graves

Sitting at the Kuld corner in Jöhlingen, trying to draw—and very badly—the statue of a whittling man that sits beside the millstones the city has placed in a fountain, from the Kulds’ mill. Just saw the church and cemetery, both beautiful. The former appears to have been built 1785-1790, after the first church was destroyed (?) in 1781. A Carolingian gravestone from the 9th century is in the church.

It’s restrained Baroque, less active and gaudy than Bavarian Baroque, with walls and ceiling of light pink, green, white, and yellow (the latter all pastel colors, too). Over the confessionals on either side of the church are very kitschy cherubim, peering down mischievously onto the two confessional doors (curtains). Sin transmuted into kitschy fun: I rather like it.