Jost Amman (June 13, 1539 – March 17, 1591) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

-German artist, celebrated chiefly for his

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s, done mainly for book illustrations.

Early life

Amman was born in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, the son of a professor of

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and

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. He was himself well-educated. Little of his personal history is known beyond the fact that he moved to

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

in 1560, where he took on citizenship and continued to reside until his death in March 1591. He worked initially with Virgil Solis, then a leading producer of book illustrations.

Career

His productivity was very remarkable, as may be gathered from the statement of one of his pupils, who said that the drawings he made during a period of four years would have filled a hay wagon. A large number of his original drawings are in the Berlin print room. About 1,500 prints are attributed to him. He was one of the last major producers of woodcuts for books, as during his career engravings were gradually taking over that role. Although like most woodcut artists, he normally let a specialist ''formschneider'' cut the block to his drawing, he occasionally included both a cutter's knife and a quill pen in his signature on prints, suggesting he sometimes cut his own blocks. Amman was the artist for

Wenzel Jamnitzer Wenzel Jamnitzer (sometimes Jamitzer, or Wenzel ''Gemniczer'') (1507/1508 – 19 December 1585) was a Northern Mannerist goldsmith, artist, and printmaker in etching, who worked in Nuremberg. He was the best known German goldsmith of his e ...

's book '' Perspectiva corporum regularium'' (1568). A series of

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

s by Amman of the kings of

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, with short biographies, appeared in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

in 1576. He also executed many of the

illustrations for the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

published at Frankfurt by Sigismund Feierabend, and for a topographical survey of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Philipp Apian Philipp Apian (14 September 1531 – 14 November 1589) was a German mathematician and medic. The son of Petrus Apianus (1495–1552), he is also known as the cartographer of Bavaria. Life He was born in Ingolstadt as Philipp Bienewitz (or Be ...

. Another serial work, the ''Panoplia Omnium Liberalium Mechanicarum et Seden-tariarum Artium Genera Continens'', containing 115 plates, is of great value. Amman's drawing is correct and spirited, and his delineation of the details of costume is minute and accurate. Paintings in oil and on glass are attributed to him, but none have been identified.

Death

Amman died in

, aged 51.

References

* *''Kartenspiel. A pack of cards.'' eipzig, Edition Leipzig, 1967.">Edition_Leipzig.html" ;"title="eipzig, Edition Leipzig">eipzig, Edition Leipzig, 1967.(A pack of cards reproduced from Amman’s ''Charta lusoria'' published in 1588, issued in case together with "Einführung von Erwin Kohlmann".) *''Pictorial archive of decorative Renaissance woodcuts: (Kunstbüchl[e]in)'' / by Jost Amman; with an introduction by Alfred Werner. New York: Dover, [1985] c1968. *Andresen, Andreas. ''Jost Amman, 1539–1591: Graphiker und Buchillustrator der Renaissance. Beschreibender Katalog seiner Holzschnitte, Radierungen und der von ihm illustrierten Bücher. Mit einer biographischen Skizze und mit Registern seines Werkes und der Autoren illustrierten Bücher.'' Amsterdam: G. W. Hissink

973 Year 973 ( CMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – The Byzantine army, led by General Melias ( Domestic of the Schools in the East), continues the op ...

(Reprint of the 1864 ed., published by Danz, Leipzig, which was issued as part of v. 1 of the author’s Der deutsche Peintre-Graveur.) *Becker, Carl. ''Jobst Amman, Zeichner und Formschneider, Kupferätzer und Stecher.'' Leipzig: R. Weigel, 1854.

External links

*
Biography I
*'
Biography III
2013-03-17 at ResearhGate.
''Charta Lusoria'' 1588''Das Ständebuch'' – Book of Trades plates 1568 – from Wikimedia Commons
*A deck of

playing cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a Pap ...

cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were introduced into Europe in the 14th century.Paul Huson, Huson, Paul (2004). ''Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Anci ...

''Panoplia omnium illiberalium mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium. (Book of Trades)''
1568 - digital facsimile from the

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, on the grounds of a urban arboretum. It claims to be the "largest independently funded public library of sc ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amman, Jost 1539 births 1591 deaths 16th-century Swiss engravers Swiss wood engravers Heraldic artists