ARTISTS' BIOGRAPHIES
DENYS VAN ALSLOOT
Mechelen isyo-Brussels 1628
The son of a Brussels tapestry maker of the same name,
Alsloot became a member of the Brussels guild of Saint
Luke in 1599. In 1606 he received the title of painter to
Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella (Serenissemorem
archiducum pictor), for whom he produced landscape
paintings, depictions of court festivities, and designs for
at least one set of tapestries. Early paintings such as Land-
scape with Cephalus and Procris of 1608 (Vienna, Kunsthis-
torisches Museum) reflect the precedent of the sylvan
landscapes of Gillis van Coninxloo while displaying Al-
sloot's refined handling of foliage and tendency to show
views of picturesque buildings located in the forest of
Soignes near Brussels, in this case the abbey of Groenen-
dael. The figures were added by Hendrick de Clerck,
with whom Alsloot regularly collaborated. His most fa-
mous paintings (Victoria and Albert Museum; Madrid,
Museo del Prado) record the so-called Ommegang, a court
procession through Brussels that took place on May 31,
- Alsloot initiated the Brussels school of landscape
painters, whose younger members included Jacques
dArthois and Lodewijk de Vadder. His surviving work
is rare, comprising some thirty-odd paintings and a
handful of drawings.
ALBRECHT ALTDORFER
Regensburg circa 1482/85-1538
Altdorfer was probably born in Regensburg and trained
in a manuscript illuminator's atelier. He is first recorded
in a document of 1505, in which he is described as a
painter and citizen of that city. The Allegory of Pax and
Minerva of 1506 (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett) is among
the earliest of his many rnmiaturistic drawings on color-
grounded paper made as finished works of art. It and
other drawings and prints from this period evidence a
knowledge of Mantegna's work which was gained either
by studying prints or by ajourney to Italy circa 1506. His
earliest dated painting, The Nativity of 1507 (Bremen,
Kunsthalle), shows the influence of Michael Pacher in its
dramatic architectural perspective as well as Altdorfer s
own emphasis on luminous effects and his predilection
for working on a small scale. Between circa 1509 and 1518
he produced his most important surviving painting, the
altarpiece with scenes from the Passion of Christ and the
life of Saint Sebastian for the Augustinian monastery of
Saint Florian, outside Linz. During this same period Alt-
dorfer received patronage from Emperor Maximilan I,
producing woodcuts for The Triumphal Procession and
The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I as well as border dec-
orations for the Prayerbook of Emperor Maximilian
(Besançon, Bibliothèque). In 1517 he was elected to the
magistrate of Regensburg, becoming city architect in
1526. Between 1517 and 1522 Altdorfer executed dynam-
ically conceived etchings and watercolors of mountain
scenes, among the earliest independent landscapes in
German art. The major paintings of his later career in-
clude the Battle of Alexander of 1529 (Alte Pinakothek),
made for Duke William IV of Bavaria. Circa 1532 he car-
ried out illusionistic wall paintings for the imperial bath
at the bishop's palace at Regensburg (Museum der Stadt
Regensburg; Szépmüvéseti Múzeum).JOST AMMAN
Zurich 1539-Nuremberg 1591
Amman was the son of a professor at the Collegium Car-
olinum in Zurich, where he was educated. His artistic
training took place in Zurich, Basel, and Schafihausen,
where he is documented in 1559 and where he probably
had contact with the glass painter Hieronymus Lang and
the graphic artist Tobias Stimmer. Settling in Nurem-
berg in 1561, Amman became the city's leading designer
of book illustrations after the death of Virgil Solis in
1562. His principal client was the Frankfurt publishing
firm of Feyerabend, for which he provided the illustra-
tions for at least fifty books, beginning with 133 wood-
cuts for the Neuwe biblische Figuren des alten unà neuiven
Testaments (1564). He was also active as a portrait painter
and designer of stained glass and jewelry. In 1578 Fey-
erabend published Amman's profusely illustrated Kunst
und Lehrbüchlein, an influential instruction manual for
artists. Various commissions during his later career took
him to Frankfurt, Venice, Zurich, Augsburg (1578),
Heidelberg (1583), Würzburg (1586-87), and Altdorf
(1590). Amman was an erudite artist with wide contacts
among other European humanists.ARTISTS BIOGRAPHIES 325