Hans Brosamer

Little is known about the life of Hans Brosamer. His name and when and where he worked can only be derived from his works. Some have assumed that Brosamer was schooled in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder in Wittenberg in the period around 1515-1520, and afterwards went to Nuremberg. There he produced a series of portraits that exhibit both Saxon influences and the style of the Nuremberg portrait art of the Dürer school. In the late 1530s, Brosamer appears to have stayed in Fulda. In 1536 he painted the portrait of the Fulda chancellor Johannes von Otthera (Zurich, private collection), the only painting that bears his complete signature. In 1540 he published a 'Kunstbüchlein' (Little Art Book). In the 1540s, Brosamer was active in Erfurt as a pattern-maker. The works attributed to him, generally simply monogrammed 'HB', are so varied in style that some scholars have assumed them to be by two different masters.