HOFFMANN, Hans

(b. ~1547 Nürnberg, d. ~1591 Praha)

German painter and draughtsman. He was first mentioned in 1576 in the Nuremberg “Ratsverlässe” as a painter and citizen of the town. He lived in Nuremberg until 1584 when he was called by Duke William V of Bavaria to the court in Munich. From 1585 he was court painter to Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, where he received an annual salary of 100 thalers until his death.

The artistic achievements of Hoffmann’s Nuremberg period is much better documented than his later career: most of his known paintings and drawings date from the years between 1573 and 1585.

Hoffmann is perhaps best known for his numerous copies after drawings by Dürer. He was among the most gifted of the many artists working at the end of the 16th century in a stylistic trend that has come to be known as the Dürer Renaissance. He made not only exact or slightly changed copies but also free variations of Dürer’s originals, and also different versions of one and the same drawing, signing perhaps one with his own monogram, another with that of Dürer.

Ecce Homo

Hans Hoffmann, also a native of Nuremberg, was one of the most important masters working in D�rer’s style. He not only worked directly after D�rer’s paintings and drawings, but also created his own unique compositions from D�rer’s motifs.

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Hare

One of the best-known imitators of D�rer’s works, in particular of his animal studies, was the Nuremberg artist Hans Hoffmann. From 1582 he was the court painter of Emperor Rudolph II, a great admirer and collector of Albrecht D�rer’s work. The depiction of a hare from above, based on a lost original, bears D�rer’s signature. But its date, the year of D�rer’s death, suggests that this sheet is not authentic. The formulaic brushstrokes in the hare’s fur and the dotted strokes on its ears are characteristic of Hofmann’s method of painting.

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Squirrel

Hoffmann’s squirrel nibbling at a hazelnut is thought by various researchers to derive from a lost work of D�rer’s in which the squirrel at the front was joined by a second one in a ‘profil perdu.’ It is possible that the artist saw the original study by arrangement with the Nuremberg Imhoff family, who owned numerous works by D�rer and were eager to lend them to him for his studies. In contrast to his study of a hare in imitation of D�rer, Hoffmann identified the sheet with his own monogram and the date. The technical perfection and fidelity with which the study is carried out are hallmarks of the Mannerist style. Hoffmann made use of copies of D�rer’s Lions in his depiction of the fur.

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