Amberger presumably spent his apprenticeship under Leonhard Beck in Augsburg. By marrying Beck's daughter, he also became licensed there as a painter in 1530. At the Diets in 1547 and 1550-1551, he met Titian. In 1548, on commission from King Ferdinand of Habsburg, he designed some of the bronze statues for the monumental Maximilian Tomb in Innsbruck. Amberger was the favoured portraitist of Augsburg's upper classes. Nothing has survived from his facade paintings. His painting in Augsburg cathedral, completed in 1554, is one of his most important works in the realm of religious art. Amberger was influenced by the works of Hans Holbein the Elder and Hans Burgkmair. Early incorporation of Italian impulses also suggests that he spent time in northern Italy, especially in Venice, around 1525-1527. Amberger is considered the last great artist of the Augsburg Renaissance.
