Amman, Jost

, a painter and engraver, was born at Zurich, June 1539. His youth and studies are involved in obscurity, and the first notice we have of him is in 1560, when he went to Nuremberg, where he was admitted a burgess, and where he died in 1591. Here he began in designs on wood, paper, and copper, that career of incessant and persevering exertion which over-ran all Germany. History, allegory, emblem, sciences, trades, arts, professions, rural sports, heraldry, portrait, fashions, were all served in their turns, and often served so well, that his inventions may still be consulted by the artist with advantage. He painted with great brilliancy on glass. His drawings hatched with the pen, or washed, have Italian characteristics of style and execution.

The multitude of designs which he made, and the number of plates which he engraved, are incredible. He lived at a time when almost every book which made its appearance was ornamented with prints, and he was employed mostly by the great booksellers, especially by Feyeraband. There are editions of Livy, Tacitus, Diogenes Laertius, and many other classics, with his prints. His portraits of the kings of France, with short memoirs, appeared in 1576. He engraved also for the New Testament, and a “Theatrum nmlierum,” Francfort, 1586, 4to. One of his most curious works is the “Panoplia omnium liberalium, mechanic-drum et sedentiarium artium genera continens,” Francfort, 1564, a collection of one hundred and fifteen | plates, exhibiting the various artificers at work. In the plate of the art of engraving, he introduced a portrait of himself. ¹