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Records of 1359 mention a house owned by Theoderic, painter to the emperor. Since he is later referred to as familiaris, Theoderic can be seen as closer than most artists to the court he served. In 1367 he was granted tax exemption for an estate in Morin which lay at the foot of Karlstein castle, and which had probably previously belonged to his predecessor at court, the Strasbourg painter Nikolaus Wurmser. This exemption from taxes was granted, it was explained, because Theoderic had created "skilful and solemn paintings" and had decorated the chapel in an "inventive (including in the technical sense) and ingenious" fashion. These words from the emperor's own lips were praise indeed. Yet it is unclear where Theoderic came from and where he trained. While Bohemian and Italian art form his starting-points, he seems to have absorbed certain influences from the German art of the day such as the sculpture of the Parler workshop, with its block-like character and monumental heaviness, which incorporates stylistic elements of 13th-century sculpture. Theoderic's art is in turn distinguished by its monumentality, its orientation towards the past, and its integration of various trends, including Italian, western European and Byzantine. In artistic terms, he thereby seems to have expressed precisely what the emperor wanted to say. From 1355 to 1375, painting in Bohemia was entirely under his sway.
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