A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF
died in Spain in tLe latter half of the 17th century.
AMBERGER, Ciikistoph, was born about the year 1490, or later. Nuremberg, Ulm, and Ani- berg are all given by various authors iia liia birth- place ; and some writers say lie studied under liis father, one Leonliard Aniberger. Certain it is, however, that Augsburg was the scene of his labours. He was, Doppelmayer says, the disciple of Hans Holbein the elder. He probably studied under Hans Burgkmair, and the paintings of Hans Holbein the younger had an evident effect on his style, so much so that his works have been some- times mistaken for those of Holbein. He painted a set of twelve pictures representing the 'History of Joseph and his Brethren,' which gained him great reputation. He succeeded, however, better in portraits than historical subjects. In 1532 he painted the portrait of the Emperor Charles V. ; and Sandrart tells us that this portrait was con- sidered by that monarch equal to any of the pictures painted of him by Titian. He certainly honoured the artist by giving him a gold chain and medal on the occasion. The original is in the Institute of Fine Arts at Siena, and is there ascribed to Holbein. The one at Berlin is a replica, by Aniberger. He died at Augsburg, in ISfi.S. From amongst Amberger's pictures, which are rarely signed, the following niaj' be selected as some of the best :
AiifTsburg. Cathedral. Virgin and Child. Berlin. jUuseam. Portrait of Charles V. (siyned). „ „ Portrait of Sebastian MUnster (dated 1552). Frankfort. Stddel. Portrait of a younff man. Vienna. Gallery. Portrait ot Martin Weiss {painted m 1.'54).
„ ,, Six other 'portraits.
AMBLING. See Amling.
AMBROGI, DoMENico, called Menichino del Br.izio, from the master under whom he studied, Francesco Brizio, was bom at Bologna, about the year 1600, and distinguished himself as a painter of history, both in oil and in fresco. He also excelled in representing landscapes, and per- spective and architectural views, and was much employed in the churches and palaces at Bologna. In the UfiBzi there are two landscapes containing sacred subjects by him. In San Giacomo Mag- giore, is a picture by Ambrogi of the 'Guardian Angel,' and in the Annunziata, ' St. Francesco,' with a glory of angels. In 1653 he published some woodcuts, from his own designs, printed in chiaroscuro, of which one, mentioned by Heineken, represented a woman in a triumphal car, holding two flambeaux and a serpent, and conducted by Neptune. By him are also a drawing for the Thesis of Julius Calaverius, and ' Painting and Sculpture.' Amongst the pupils of Ambrogi were Giacinto and Pier Antonio Cerva, Giovanni Antonio Fumi- ani, and Giacinto Campana.
AMBROGI, Marco degli. See Degi.i Ambrogi.
AMBROZY, Wenzel Bernhard, who was born at Kuttenberg, in Bohemia, in 1723, received in- struction in art at Prague from his brother Joseph, who was a miniature painter. He was court- painter to Maria Theresa, and the last president of the Painters' Guild at Prague. He painted por- traits and altar-pieces in oil ; but was also famous for his frescoes, which adorn many of the churches and castles of Prague, and other places in Bohemia. He died in 1806.
AMEDEE de NOE (' Cham '). See No6.
AMELSFOORT, Quirinus van, was born at Bois-le-Duc in 1760, and died there in 1820. He painted allegories, history, and portraits ; in the last the likenesses were remarkable for their truth.
AMERIGI, Michel Angiolo, da Caravaggio, (or Amerighi, or MoRlGl), was born at Caravaggio, a village in the Milanese, in 1569. He was the son of a mason, and was employed when a boy to prepare the plaster for the fresco painters at Milan. The habit of seeing them work inspired him with the ambition of becoming an artist ; and without the instruction of any particular master, he attached himself to a faithful imitation of nature, and formed to himself a manner which, from its singularity, and a striking effect of light and shadow, became extremely popular. For a few years he confined himself to painting fruit, flowers, and portraits, which were much admired for the fidelity of their resemblance. Such was his rigid adherence to the precise imitation of his model, that he copied nature even in her deformities, and he afterwards continued the same slavish mechanism in the higher department of historical painting. After five years of steady application in Milan, Caravaggio removed to Venice, where he greatly improved his colouring by studying the works of Giorgione; and the pictures painted in his earlier manner are infinitely preferable, in point of colour, to his later works. From Venice he went to Rome, in which city, finding hhnself, through poverty, unable to gain a livehhood as an independent painter, lie engaged himself to Cesare d'Arpino, who employed him to execute the floral and ornamental parts of his pictures. Caravaggio, however, was soon enabled to paint for himself. The novelty of his manner both pleased and surprised; and his works soon became so generally the objects of public admiration, that some of the greatest artists then in Rome were induced to imitate, without approving, the new style of Amerigi. Guido and Domenichino, to gratify a corrupt public taste, were for some time under the necessity of abandoning their suavity and their grace, to follow this vulgar though vigorous trickery of Caravaggio. This infatuation did not, however, continue long; the attractions of the grand and the beautiful resumed their sway over public opinion. After executing many important works, Caravaggio was obliged to leave the city on account of the death of a friend, whom he had killed in a fit of anger ; he repaired to Naples, whence he went to Malta, where he was patronized by the grand-master Vignacourt, whose portrait he twice painted. Once more, through his hot and fiery temper, Caravaggio was driven from the town of his choice. He quarrelled with a knight, who threw him into prison. Caravaggio, however, escaped from captivity and fled to Syracuse, whence he went to Naples by way of Messina and Palermo. Having obtained, through the influence of his friends, the Pope's pardon for the manslaughter of his companion, Caravaggio set sail from Naples for Home, but he was taken prisoner on the way by some Spaniards, in mistake for another man. On being set at liberty, he had the misfortune to find that the boatmen had gone off with the felucca and his property. He continued his way as far as Porto Ercole, where, partly from his loss, and partly from the heat of the
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