German sculptor, ivory-carver and master builder. He probably started his training with his father, the sculptor Hieronymus Barthel (active 1625-c. 1640), and completed his apprenticeship (1640-45) with Johann Boehme (d. 1667). There are records of various journeys he made to Augsburg, Ulm, Venice and Rome. He lived in Venice for 17 years, during which time he made sculptures for the tomb of Doge Giovanni Pesaro (1669; Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice), based on a design by Baldassare Longhena, a statue of St John the Baptist (Scalzi, Venice), a Crucifix (San Bartolomeo, Venice) and a mourning female figure for the tomb of the painter Melchiore Lanza (Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice). From Venice, Barthel returned to Dresden, where he was appointed court sculptor in 1670. No large works are known from his time in Dresden. His works in ivory include copies (Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden) of groups from Classical antiquity. No evidence of his work as a master builder has survived. //