Brokof, Ferdinand Maximilián

Brokof, Ferdinand Maximilián (b Červený Hrádek [German Rothenhaus], Bohemia, 12 Sept. 1688; d Prague, 8 Mar. 1731). Bohemian sculptor, the son and pupil of Jan Brokof (1652–1718), a Hungarian-born sculptor who moved to Prague in 1675. The younger Brokof ranks with Braun as the leading Bohemian Baroque sculptor. His work is less emotionally intense than Braun's, but it has great dignity. He is best known for various pieces on the Charles Bridge in Prague (on which his father also worked), among them the over-life-size group of St John of Matha, St Felix of Valois, and St Ivan (1714), which features a famous figure of a Turkish guard. Another outstanding work (designed by the architect Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach) is the tomb of Count Vratislav Mitrovic (1714–16) in St Jacob's church, Prague. Brokof's reputation extended outside Bohemia and he had commissions from churches in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), Vienna, and elsewhere. His brother Michael Jan Josef Brokof (1686–1721) was also a sculptor.