MIELICH, HANS

MIELICH, HANS. - Painter, miniaturist, and engraver, b. in Monaco in 1516, d. there in 1573. From his father he learned the rudiments of art and initially worked in his workshop. Hans too established his residence in Monaco, after a stay in Ratisbona, where between 1536 and 1540 he met Altdorfer, whose influence remained decisive for his art. Then, after a journey to Rome in 1541, given the painter’s numerous connections with the ducal court, a cordial friendship arose between M. and Alberto V.
Hence the emphasis on the courtly features of the master’s work and of his Renaissance training. From 1558 until his death he was head of the Confraternity of Painters of Monaco. Numerous portraits survive from his activity, some of them only recently recognized by scholarship, a series of historical paintings, and the great altarpiece of the Frauenkirche in Ingolstadt, of 1571, as well as numerous miniatures—upon which the master’s fame especially rested—preserved in manuscripts in the Archives of Ratisbona, the Bavarian National Museum, and the Municipal Library of Monaco, together with wood engravings.