Biography

German painter, specialist in painting animals. He was born and trained in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), and visited Rome in 1659. Ruthart spent 1663 and 1664 in Antwerp, where he joined the painters' guild and could study first-hand the work of Flemish animal painters such as Frans Snyders. Artists such as Wilhelm van Ehrenberg often called on Ruthart to add animals to their architectural or landscape scenes. His reputation lay not only in his understanding of animal anatomy and his skill at painting fur but his ability to integrate animals smoothly into a variety of settings, from mythological or biblical contexts to idyllic scenes. His work is characterized by restrained, cool colours with alternating light and shadow in the foreground.

Between 1665 and 1667 Ruthart traveled to Vienna via Regensburg, Germany. In 1672 he went to Venice and then to Rome, where he saw the work of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. In Rome he entered the Celestine monastery and painted altarpieces for its church. Ruthart later moved to the monastery at L'Aquila, where he continued to paint.