Johann Carl Loth (Baptized 8 August 1632 – 6 October 1698) was a German Baroque painter who spent most of his life in Venice. His name is also rendered as Johann Karl, Karel and, in Italy, Carlotto or Carlo Lotti.Johann Carl Loth
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

He specialized in

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and B ...

s; generally crowded group scenes. His subjects were typically from classical mythology or the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

Biography

He was born in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, in the

Electorate of Bavaria The Electorate of Bavaria () was a quasi-independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Bavaria was the younger ...

. According to the biographer,

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch people, Dutch Painting, painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadt ...

, he was one of the three grand masters of art named "Karel", or "Carl" (the other two were

Karel Dujardin Karel Dujardin (September 27, 1626November 20, 1678) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Although he did a few portraits and a few history paintings of religious subjects, most of his work is small Italianate landscape scenes with animals and peasan ...

and Karel Marat, usually called Carlo Maratta).Drost Biography
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by

, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature He was the son and pupil of and was possibly influenced by Giovan Battista Langetti. He was once commissioned to paint for the emperor Leopold I in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and worked together with

Pietro Liberi Pietro (Libertino) Liberi (1605 – 18 October 1687) was an Italian painter of the Baroque era, active mainly in Venice and the Veneto. Biography Liberi was born in Padua, his earliest training was with Alessandro Varotari (''il Padovanino''). ...

in Venice, where he lived from 1663 until his death in 1698. His brother Franz (1639–1710) was also a painter in Venice and Germany and often collaborated with Carl. He had numerous pupils, including , Santo Prunati,

Johann Michael Rottmayr Johann Michael Rottmayr (11 December 1656 – 25 October 1730) was an Austrian painter. Biography Rottmayr was born in Laufen an der Salzach, Bavaria. Along with his Laufen-born contemporary, Hans Adam Weissenkircher, he received his educ ...

, Hans Adam Weissenkircher, Daniel Seiter, and Baron Peter Strudel.

Popularity among Dutch artists

He attracted well-to-do artists, such as

Cornelis de Bruijn Cornelis de Bruijn or Cornelius de Bruyn (; 16521726/7), also formerly known in English by his French name Corneille Le Brun, was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his observations of peop ...

and Jan van Bunnik, who made trips especially to visit his studio.

Willem Drost Willem Drost (baptized 19 April 1633 – buried 25 February 1659) was a Dutch Golden Age Painting, painter and printmaker of history paintings and portraits. Biography He is a mysterious figure, closely associated with Rembrandt, with very few ...

and

Jan Vermeer van Utrecht Jan Vermeer van Utrecht (16 February 1630 (bapt.) – c. 1696) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Though he was born near Delft, there is no known relation between this painter and Johannes Vermeer. Biography Vermeer was born in Schipluiden. His f ...

were among his close friends. He is buried in the church of

San Luca, Venice The church of San Luca Evangelista is a church in the sestiere of San Marco in Venice, Italy. A parish church stood at the site since the 11th century, patronized by the patrician Dandolo and Pizzamano families. Restored over the centuries, it und ...

Collections

His works are mostly in Germany and Italy. Other museums with works by Loth include the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

and the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...

Burghley House Burghley House () is a grand sixteenth-century English country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire. It is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, built and still lived in by the senior (Exeter) branch of the Cecil family and is Grade ...

in England has two large paintings in the chapel. '' Isaac Blessing Jacob'' is on long-term loan to the

Skirball Cultural Center The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, has a museum with regularly changing exhi ...

in Los Angeles, having recently been reclaimed by the Bloch family, originally from Brno, Czechoslovakia. In 2023 a Loth painting that had been looted by the Nazis was found after a search of more than 80 years by the family of Jewish Czech industrialist Johann Bloch. Changes in the title and attribution had made the search particularly difficult.

Gallery

File:Isaac Blessing Jacob by Johann Carl Loth.jpg, ''Isaac Blessing Jacob'' (

) File:Johann Carl Loth 001.jpg, ''Jupiter and Mercury with Philemon and Baucis'', 1659 (Kunsthistorisches Museum) File:Johann Carl Loth - Eve Tempting Adam.jpg, ''Eve Tempting Adam'',

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

File:Accademia - Carl Johann Loth - San Romualdo.jpg, ''Saint

Romuald Romuald (; 951 – traditionally 19 June, c. 1025/27 AD) was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century "Renaissance of hermit, eremitical asceticism".John Howe, "The Awesome Hermit: The Symbolic Signifi ...

'',

Gallerie dell'Accademia The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery o ...

Venice File:Loth, Johann Carl - Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well - 1670s.jpg, ''Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well'' File:Loth Death of Cato.jpg, ''Death of Cato the Younger'' File:Johann Carl Loth 003.jpg, ''Adam Weeping
over the Death of Abel'' File:Johann Carl Loth - Selene en Endymion.jpg, ''

Selene In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Selene (; , meaning "Moon")''A Greek–English Lexicon's.v. σελήνη is the goddess and personification of the Moon. Also known as Mene (), she is traditionally the daughter ...

and Endymion''

References

*''Dictionary of Painters and Engravers''. Michael Bryan. pp. 78–79.

External links

Johann Carl Loth
on

Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City. It is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly-traded company based in Berlin that is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Ex ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loth, Johann Carl 1632 births 1698 deaths Painters from Munich People from the Electorate of Bavaria 17th-century German painters German male painters 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters German Baroque painters Painters from Venice Italian Baroque painters