Hans Besser (1510 – after 1558) was a German

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

portrait painter. His exact date of death is not known. Not much is known about Besser's life except through his works. He was probably born in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

and left in 1537 because of religious persecution, and found refuge in the

Electoral Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy Roman Empero ...

. He became a citizen of the city of

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...

. In 1546 he was appointed official

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 ...

for

Frederick II, Elector Palatine Frederick II, Count Palatine of the Rhine (9 December 1482 – 26 February 1556), also Frederick the Wise, a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was Prince-elector of the Palatinate from 1544 to 1556, and pretender to the Norwegian Throne fro ...

. After the death of Frederick in 1556, Besser continued as court painter to

Otto Henry, Elector Palatine Otto-Henry, Elector Palatine, (; 10 April 1502, Amberg – 12 February 1559, Heidelberg) a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty was Count Palatine of Palatinate-Neuburg from 1505 to 1557 and prince elector of the Palatinate from 1556 to 1559 ...

. Besser was primarily a portrait painter. Before these portraits were detectable through documentation, attributions of his works were originally assigned to either ''Master of Pfalz'' or ''Master of Margrave''. These names were given to the painter because of the frequent representation of the Palatinate princes. Besser demonstrated none of the leading visual style of the Renaissance in Germany. His cool portraits with their motionless poses and rigid facial expressions show a distant contemplation, which seems to follow a sober objectivity of

Dutch painting Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

of the period of the Reformation.

References

* K. holes: Hans Better - The Master of Pfalz- and Margrave. (With a contribution by Barbara Schock-Werner.) In: Munich Yearbook of Fine Arts, the third episode, 47 (1996), pp 73–102 * Hans Besser. In: Art Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press Online Edition 2002 called, April 2010 * Holes, Kurt: Hans Besser. In: Saur. General Artist Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, Munich / Leipzig 1995, p 208–209. * Baden State Museum Karlsruhe: The Renaissance in the southwest of Germany between the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. Catalog. Bd. 1 Karlsruhe 1986 1510 births Year of death unknown 16th-century German painters German male painters German Renaissance painters Artists from Aachen Painters from North Rhine-Westphalia {{Germany-painter-stub