1. Adam Elsheimer was a German artist working in Rome, who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century in the field of Baroque paintings.
20 Facts About Adam Elsheimer
1. 2.
Adam Elsheimer was an influence on many other artists, including Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens.
3.
Adam Elsheimer's father's house was a few metres from the church where Albrecht Durer's Heller Altarpiece was then displayed.
4.
Adam Elsheimer's stay in Venice is undocumented, but the influence on his style is clear.
5.
Adam Elsheimer probably worked as an assistant to Johann Rottenhammer, some of whose drawings he owned.
6.
Adam Elsheimer is believed to have produced some significant works in Venice, such as The Baptism of Christ and The Holy Family which show the influence of the Venetian painters Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese, as well as Rottenhammer.
7.
In early 1600, Adam Elsheimer arrived in Rome and quickly made friends with contacts of Rottenhammer, notably Giovanni Faber, a Papal doctor, botanist and collector originally from Bamberg.
8.
Adam Elsheimer was Curator of the Vatican Botanical Garden, and a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, a small intellectual coterie founded in 1603, and mainly concerned with the natural sciences.
9.
Adam Elsheimer knew David Teniers the Elder, recently Rubens' pupil, and there is evidence that they lodged together.
10.
Adam Elsheimer spent much time in churches, studying the works of the masters.
11.
Adam Elsheimer was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca, the Roman painters' Guild, in 1606, giving them a self-portrait now in the Uffizi.
12.
Adam Elsheimer's painting of Tobias and the Angel was especially well received because of its new conception of landscape.
13.
Adam Elsheimer seems to have borrowed money from Goudt, which according to one account resulted in his brief incarceration in Debtor's prison.
14.
Adam Elsheimer had a definite preference for choosing rare or original subjects, both for his mythological and religious paintings.
15.
Adam Elsheimer made a few etchings, but not very successfully.
16.
Rembrandt's first dated work is a Stoning of St Stephen which appears to be a response to Adam Elsheimer's painting of the subject, now in Edinburgh.
17.
Adam Elsheimer often uses as many as five different sources of light.
18.
Adam Elsheimer's landscapes do not always feature an extensive view; often the lushness of the vegetation closes it off.
19.
Adam Elsheimer's compositions tend to underplay the drama of the events they depict, but often show the start of moments of transformation.
20.
Adam Elsheimer's figures are relatively short and stocky, and reflect little of classical ideals.