Elsheimer had an influence to a degree out of all proportion to his brief career and small oeuvre. Born in Frankfurt, he soon migrated to Rome, where the new Baroque style was being forged, both by Caravaggio and other Italians and by visiting northerners. Influenced himself by Atdorfer, Tintoretto, and Bassano, Elsheimer in turn became a revered model for both rubens and Rembrandt, all the French and Flemish painters who visited Rome, and native Italians such as Agostino Tasso and Saraceni. He always worked on a small scale, painting meticulously in oil on a copper ground, but importing into his complex compositons sophisticated devices and effects comparable to the greatest commissions of the time. Accompanying a major exhibition in Frankfurt, Edinburgh, and London, this book incorporates new research and features superb color plates and details of the artist's paintings.
