Kaspar Amort - Johannes Studie - 1213 - Bavarian State Painting Collections

Kaspar Amort (1612 – 7 March 1675) was a German painter, active in Munich. He is sometimes known as Kaspar Amort the Elder, to distinguish him from his son Kaspar Amort the Younger (born c. 1640).

Life

Amort was born in 1612 in the valley of the

Jachenau Jachenau is a municipality in the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in Bavaria in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe afte ...

. He went to

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 ...

in 1631, where he studied art under

Johann Donauer Hans Donauer (c1521, Munich – 1596, Munich), was a German Renaissance painter. He is sometimes known as Hans Donauer the Elder. His surname is sometimes spelt "Thonauer or Thunauer. Biography According to Karel van Mander he was the teacher ...

. He then paid a visit to Italy, where the works of

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

had a great impact on his style. In 1642, following his return to Munich he was made

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

, and executed numerous works for the ''

Residenz Residenz () is a German word for "place of living", now obsolete except in the formal sense of an official residence. A related term, Residenzstadt, denotes a city where a sovereign ruler resided, therefore carrying a similar meaning as the modern ...

'' and for churches and monastic buildings, including an altarpiece (c.1655), showing the martyrdom of

St Ursula Saint Ursula (Latin for 'little female bear', german: link=no, Heilige Ursula) is a legendary Romano-British Christian saint who died on 21 October 383. Her feast day in the pre-1970 General Roman Calendar is 21 October. There is little inform ...

and her companions, for the parish church of St Sylvester in

Schwabing Schwabing is a borough in the northern part of Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. It is part of the city borough 4 (Schwabing-West) and the city borough 12 (Schwabing-Freimann). The population of Schwabing is estimated about 100 ...

. He died at Munich on 7 March 1675.

Family

Amort had four sons and five daughters. Two of his sons were artists: Kaspar (by whom no major works are known) and Lukas.

References

Sources

* Attribution: * 1612 births 1675 deaths People from Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen 17th-century German painters German male painters Court painters {{Germany-painter-stub