Martino Altomonte (n.a. - 1745)

Born in Naples, son of a baker, the artist trained with Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639– 1709) and Carlo Maratta (1625–1713) in Rome. In 1684 King John III Sobieski (1629–1696) brought him to Warsaw as court painter. Italians were the favourite artists at the time, and Martin Hohenberg astutely Italianised his name to Martino Altomonte. He married Barbara Dorothea Gerke, and they had six children, including Bartolomeo (1693/94– 1779). From 1700, Martino Altomonte lived in Vienna; seven years later he became a member of the Kayserliche Academie founded by Peter Strudel (1660–1714). He painted the ceiling frescos in the Lower Belvedere and ran his workshop in the Heiligenkreuzer Hof. His last major work was the series of altar-pieces (1741) in Mönchhof parish church in Burgenland. Together with Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654–1730), Martino Altomonte is considered the founder of Austrian baroque painting.

Author: Ducke Astrid

Literature: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas, OEHRING Erika: Masterworks. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2015, S. 94