Adam Elsheimer

Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610) was a German artist working in Rome. He died at the age of 32, but was very influential in the field of Baroque paintings in the early 17th century. His relatively few paintings were mostly small scale, nearly all painted on copper plates, of the type often known as cabinet paintings. They include a variety of light effects, and an innovative treatment of landscape. He was a great influence on other artists, including Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens.

Born in Frankfurt am Main, Adam was one of ten children and the son of a master-tailor. His father’s house (which survived till 1944 before being destroyed by Allied bombs) was a few metres from the church where Albrecht Dürer’s Heller Altarpiece was then displayed. He was an apprentice to the artist Philipp Uffenbach. Elsheimer visited Strasbourg in 1596, and at the age of twenty, he travelled to Italy via Munich, where he was documented in 1598.