Portrait of Matthäus Schwarz

portrait

Breaking away from the usually plain background of German portraits, Amberger here draws upon a compositional structure normally found in Netherlandish painting. He places the sitter in an interior, with a window through which we can see a stormy and mountainous landscape painted in soft blue tones, which become blurred as they recede into the background. The sitter is seated and looks out at the viewer, leaning on the edge of a table.

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About the Artist

Christoph Amberger

1505 – 1562

Amberger was an Augsburg portrait painter whose works resemble those of Holbein, but with a strong Venetian influence, perhaps due to Paris Bordone, who may have visited Augsburg in 1540. Christoph Amberger was a noted portraitist whose patrons came from the upper classes. He worked in the service of Emperor Charles V, whom he painted and for whom he restored Titian's portrait of the Emperor now in the Prado Museum. In around 1525 he went to Italy, which may have influenced his painting. There is a signed altarpiece of 1560 in St Anna, Augsburg, but the only signed portrait by him seems to be the Emperor Charles V (Berlin). There are works in Augsburg, Birmingham (Barber Institute), Glasgow, Munich, Philadelphia (Johnson), Toledo, Ohio, Vienna and York.

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