(b Schneeberg, nr Reichenbach, bapt 8 Aug 1628; d Schneeberg, bur 13 Feb 1703). German sculptor. One of an extensive family of sculptors from Saxony, he trained in Bohemia and lived in Semelc Zbánya (Schemnitz) in Hungary from 1654 to 1674. After 1675 he returned to Saxony. His earliest surviving work is the rich and imposing wood altarpiece in Jönstadt (1676). In the central recess is an Adoration, with the Virgin kneeling before the Infant Christ; above are two angels, flanked by putti holding the Instruments of the Passion. Additional figures represent Christ Triumphant, Christ on the Cross and Christ at the Column. The large and somewhat stiff figures, which are painted white in imitation of marble, have small heads and narrow eyes. About 1690 Petzoldt carved the wood altar in Niederfrohna with a Crucifixion group with St John the Divine and the Virgin. The work is crowned by a group representing the Resurrection. Other works by Petzoldt include a sandstone Crucifix with a figure of a kneeling woman at its foot, near the Hospitaalkerk at Schneeberg (c. 1683). He worked in the Central European Baroque style.