Joseph Heintz the Elder (1564 – 1609)

• Was a Swiss painter, draftsman and architect.
• Heintz was born in Basel.
• Joseph Heintz the Elder appears to have been a pupil of Hans Bock, and to have educated himself by diligent practice in copying the works of Hans Holbein the younger.
• Between 1585 and 1587 he lived in Rome, registering himself a pupil to Hans von Aachen.
• He next settled in Bohemia in 1591, and was at once appointed court painter to Rudolf II, but he remained in Prague for two years only.
• In 1593 he was commissioned to make some copies from the antique for the emperor, and for that purpose went to Rome, where he spent some years.
• In 1604 we hear of him in Augsburg, and from the time we know little of his history, until his decease is recorded in a village near Prague.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Bow-carving Amor, after 1603.