Johann Liss Liss

Background

He was born in Oldenburg, Holstein circa 1590.

Education

After an initial education in his home state, he continued his studies, according to Houbraken, with Hendrick Goltzius in Haarlem and Amsterdam.

Career

He is known to have been in Rome in 1620 and in 1621 in Venice, where he died of the plague in 1629. In Rome he was profoundly influenced by Caravaggio; this may be seen in Lys's Lute Player (Dresden Gallery). Later, however, the strong contrasts of light and shade give way under the influence of Venetian colorism to brilliant color and a free treatment of the painted surface. At the peak of his coloristic development, exemplified by the Visitation of St. Jerome (San Nicolo dei Tolentini, Venice), his style is fresh and brilliant with sparkling reflected lights and great richness of tone. Together with Domenico Feti and Bernardo Strozzi, Lys - especially in such open-air scenes as the Peasants Playing Mora (Cassel) - helped prepare the way for the rich pictorialism of the eighteenth century.

Achievements

• He was as a painter of both sensuous mythological and pious biblical subjects, a master of colors and Baroque painting. He was most influential to Venetian 18th-century painters like Sebastiano Ricci, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Giovanni Piazzetta.

Interests

• Initially he was profoundly influenced by Caravaggiom later by Venetian colorism.