STIMMER, TOBIAS. - Painter and engraver, b. in Schaffhausen on 17 April 1539, d. in Strasbourg on 4 January 1584.
He is one of the principal exponents of late Mannerism in the Germanic countries. Trained in Zurich under Hans Asper, he was active in Schaffhausen until 1570, then until his death in Strasbourg, with the interruption of a few sojourns in Baden-Baden. In the Basel Museum are his best portraits: Jacob Schwytzer and his wife (1564), Thomas Erastus (1582), and in Schaffhausen the painted decoration of the facade of the house "of the Knight." In the Strasbourg cathedral the name of T. S. is linked to the celebrated astronomical clock executed between 1571 and 1574, and decorated with paintings and sculptures in a rich complex of allegorical and biblical figures. Fourteen chiaroscuros drawn with great skill, depicting designs for the moving figurines of the clock, are in the Museum of Fine Arts of Strasbourg, where there are also some of the original color paintings and carved figurines, which in the Cathedral were replaced in 1842 by those of Philippe Grasse. Of the frescoes of the castle of Baden-Baden there is no longer any trace after the destruction of 1789. There are, on the other hand, many drawings and engravings from which Rubens himself sometimes drew examples and inspirations; among the most notable are the engravings of the Bible, of Livy's Roman history, of the books of Flavius Josephus. His manner is always incisive, rapid, rich in pictorial effects with intense contrasts of light and shadow; in 1580 he also illustrated a comedy of which he was himself the author.
Bibliography2 works
Gemälden in Baden, in Jahrb. der preuss. Kunstsamml., 59 (1938), pp. 247-49; M. Unger, T. S. Austerling, in Schaffhausen Pantheon, 1940, p. 41; F. Lugt, Rubens und S., in The Art Quarterly, 1943, pp. 99-115; P. Boesch, T. S's allegorische Dechengemälde im Schloss zu Baden-Baden (Nachrag), in Zeitschr. für Schweiz. Archäol. und Kunstgesch., 1951, pp. 221-26.
Luisa Mortari