Swiss sculptor, historian, archaeologist and poet. A meeting with the sculptor Joseph Anton Maria Christen convinced Keller that he too must become a sculptor. Having sided with Switzerland's revolutionaries, in 1794 he went into voluntary exile in Florence and later in Rome, where he gravitated towards the German-Danish circle of Asmus Jakob Carstens and Berthel Thorvaldsen, completed his artistic training and received his first modest commissions.
When commissions grew scarce in Rome after the arrival of the French army, Keller decided to try his luck under the new government of the Swiss Republic but the group he sent them failed to win favour. Political instability in Switzerland reduced his chances of obtaining official commissions, but he later executed several cenotaphs for aristocratic families (e.g. Friedrich von Graffenried, 1812; marbleGLOSSARYloosely applied to any hard limestone that can be sawn into thin slabs and will take a good polish so that it is suitable for decorative work; more strictly, it refers to metamorphosed limestones whose structure has been recrystallized by heat or pressure. Marbles are widely disseminated and occur in a great variety of colours and patterns, but certain types have been particularly prized by sculptors. The most famous of Greek white marbles in the ancient world was the close-grained Pentelic, which was quarried at Mount Pentelicon in Attica. The Elgin Marbles are carved in Pentelic. Widely used also were the somewhat coarser-grained translucent white marbles from the Aegean islands of Paros and Naxos. Parian marble was used for the celebrated Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The pure white Carrara marble, quarried at Massa, Carrara, and Pietra Santa in Tuscany from the 3rd century BC, is the most famous of all sculptors' stones. It was used for the Apollo Belvedere, and was much favoured in the Renaissance, particularly by Michelangelo, who often visited the quarries to select material for his work. Neoclassical sculptors also favoured Carrara marble because of its ability to take a smooth, sleek surface, but it can look rather 'dead' compared with some of the finest Greek marbles., Historisches Museum, Bern), including works that are numbered among the most important of Swiss Neo-classicalGLOSSARYRelating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration. sculpture. Although Keller made a considerable contribution to Roman Neo-classical sculpture in the period after Trippel's death and before the emergence of Antonio Canova, his greatest success was a work that was rather modest in relation to his ambitions and manifest talent: the Birth of Venus, of which he executed seven versions in marble, two in alabaster and thirteen smaller versions in bronzeGLOSSARYAn alloy of copper (usually about 90 per cent) and tin, often also containing small amounts of other metals such as lead or zinc. Since antiquity it has been the metal most commonly used in cast sculpture because of its strength, durability, and the fact that it is easily workable - both hot and cold - by a variety of processes. It is easier to cast than copper because it has a lower melting-point, and its great tensile strength makes possible the protrusion of unsupported parts - an advantage over marble sculpture. The colour of bronze is affected by the proportion of tin or other metals present, varying from silverish to a rich, coppery red, and its surface beauty can be enhanced when it acquires a patina. (Kunsthaus, Zurich).
When failing health forced him to curtail his activities as a sculptor, Keller devoted himself increasingly to patriotic history, poetry and archaeology.
