The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris : Patronage in Late Renaissance Bavaria

The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris is the first monograph on the court artist and artistic director of Duke Wilhelm V. Sustris''s drawings inspire a broader inquiry into early modern patronage and collecting practices. Incorporating original archival material into close analysis of surviving projects, this study examines the meanings and functions of court art at the crucial moment when artists and patrons were establishing artistic theories in sixteenth-century Munich.

Shedding new light on the relatively unknown art of the Wittelsbach dukes''s sixteenth-century court, The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris represents the first monograph to focus on this Italian-trained Netherlandish artist. The volume incorporates original archival material, including letters and payment records into the analysis of Sustris''s many projects that ranged from large fresco cycles to intimate luxury and devotional objects. Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria transformed Munich into a vital cultural crossroads between northern Europe and Italy. As Wilhelm''s court artist and artistic director, Friedrich Sustris created a unified vision that broadcast Bavarian magnificence to princely courts across Europe. Although much of Sustris''s work is lost, the remaining body of his drawings provides a unique window onto the reception of drawings by early modern elites within the context of their collecting practices.