Antonio Ponzano

Antonio Ponzano, Ponzoni or Bonzone (died 1602, in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

) was an Italian

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

painter active in the 16th century. His birthplace is unknown - it may have been

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, since he was influenced by the Venetian style. He was a studio assistant to

Giulio Licinio Giulio Licinio (16th century) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period. He was born in the town of Pordenone and is said to have been a nephew of the painter il Pordenone, and brother of Giovanni Antonio.It is unknown to the editor what ...

in 1565 at the court of

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (31 July 1527 – 12 October 1576) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death in 1576. A member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, he was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany (King ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Between 1550 and 1600 a large number of Italian painters moved to the

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate o ...

ducal court. Major banking families such as the

Fugger The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and vent ...

s were also major art patrons - Ponzano himself was an assistant to

Friedrich Sustris Friedrich Sustris (c. 1540, in Padua – 1599, in Munich) was an Italian-Dutch painter, decorator and architect. He was a son of the artist Lambert Sustris, who worked in Italy. Sustris got his training from his father Lambert in Venice and Padu ...

between 1569 and 1573 in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

, where Sustris was working for Hans Fugger. Between 1585 and 1597 Ponzano was at the court in Munich. Some of Ponzano's 1570-1572 paintings with '

grottesche Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

' survive in the

palace in Augsburg, as well as some of his studio work for Sustris. He also assisted Sustris and

Alessandro Scalzi Alessandro Scalzi (died c. 1596, in Munich) was an Italian painter. All his surviving works are now in Bavaria Life Known as 'il Paduano' (the Paduan) despite actually being born in Florence, he was a relative (possibly brother-in-law) of Friedri ...

(known as ''Il Paduano'') on their 1580 work at Trausnitz Castle at

Landshut Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also t ...

- there Ponzano worked on the lodges in the castle, creating scenes of mythological love affairs. Sustris designed the ''Grottenhof'' at the

Munich Residenz The Residenz (, ''Residence'') in central Munich is the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria. The Residenz is the largest city palace in Germany and is today open to visitors for its architecture, room decorations, and displ ...

, with the shells and grotesques painted by Ponzano and the Dutchman

Pieter de Witte Peter de Witte, known in Italy as Pietro Candido and in Bavaria as Peter Candid (c. 1548 – 1628) was a Flemish-born Mannerist painter, tapestry designer and draughtsman active in Italy and Bavaria.1602 deaths 16th-century Italian painters