Amman Jo(b)st (1539-91).
Jost Amman was a Swiss artist, celebrated chiefly for his
woodcuts, done mainly for book illustrations.
Amman was born in
Zurich, the son of a professor of Classics and Logic. He was himself
well-educated. Little of his personal history is known beyond the
fact that he moved to Nuremberg in 1560, where he continued to
reside until his death in March 1591. He worked initially with
Virgil Solis, then a leading producer of book illustrations. His
productiveness was very remarkable, as may be gathered from the
statement of one of his pupils, that the drawings he made during a
period of four years would have filled a hay wagon. A large number
of his original drawings are in the Berlin print room. About 1,500
prints are attributed to him. He was one of the last major producers
of woodcuts for books, as during his career engravings were
gradually taking over that role. Although like most artists for
woodcut he normally let a specialist formschneider cut the block to
his drawing, he sometimes included both a cutter's knife and a quill
pen in his signature on prints, suggesting he sometimes cut his own
blocks.
A series of
engravings by Amman of the kings of France, with short biographies,
appeared in Frankfurt in 1576. He also executed many of the woodcut
illustrations for the Bible published at Frankfurt by Sigismund
Feierabend. Another serial work, the Panoplia Omnium Liberalium
Mechanicarum et Seden-tariarum Artium Genera Continens, containing
115 plates, is of great value. Amman's drawing is correct and
spirited, and his delineation of the details of costume is minute
and accurate. Paintings in oil and on glass are attributed to him,
but none have been identified.
