Hans Rottenhammer

1564 Munich - Augsburg 1625

Hans Rottenhammer served his apprenticeship in Hans Donauer’s studio in Munich. Financially supported by the Duke Wiliam V of Bavaria, he left Rome in 1589 to collaborate with Paul Bril and jan Bruegel (“Velvet” Bruegel) who was to exert a considerable influence upon him.
He was soon appreciated for his small scale format historical and mythological subjects executed on copper. He then left for Venice there to study the works of Paul Veronese and Tintoretto (the latter at the Scuola di San Rocco). He received major commissions from the Duke Ferdinand of Mantua. From 1596 till 1606, he was back in Venice where Adam Elsheimer worked in his studio. He returned to Germany in 1606 there to settle in Augsburg where he was made master and acquired the rights of citizenship in 1607.

He workes in Bückeburg from 1609 till 1613, and thereafter a protégé of the Emperor Rodolf II, returned to Augsburg where he executed important commissions (decorative compositions and altar-pieces) for his imperial patron.

Edigius Sadeleer and Lucas Kilian made engravings inspired by his compositions which as a result soon became famous. His works combine Venetian compsitional patterns with the imagery and technique of Dutch landscape paintings. The lavish details, their extremely accurate treatment, the enamal-like pigment layering, the reverant, dignified intimacy relating subject and painter are some of the reasons why Rottenhammer’s production has always been appreciated and very much in demand.