MIELICH, HANS

MIELICH, HANS. — Painter, miniaturist and engraver, b. in Munich in 1516, d. there in 1573. He learned the rudiments of art from his father and initially worked in the latter’s workshop. After a stay in Regensburg, where he met Altdorfer between 1536 and 1540, an encounter whose influence decisively shaped his art, Hans too settled in Munich. Then, following a journey to Rome in 1541, and given the numerous ties between the painter and the ducal court, a cordial friendship arose between Mielich and Albrecht V.
From this point onward, the master’s work and his Renaissance education took on more courtly characteristics. From 1558 until his death he headed the Confraternity of Painters in Munich. Among the surviving works are numerous portraits, some only recently attributed to him by scholarship, a series of historical paintings, and the large altarpiece of the Frauenkirche in Ingolstadt (1571), as well as many miniatures—especially these latter that have preserved the master’s fame. They are preserved in manuscripts in the archives of Regensburg, the Bavarian National Museum, the Municipal Library of Munich, and as woodcuts.