Friedrich Sustris

Sustris: Triumphal procession of Marius over Jugurtha (c. 1580/90?)

Friedrich Sustris (c. 1540, in Padua – 1600, in Munich) was an Italian-Dutch painter, From 1563 to 1567 he was trained by Giorgio Vasari in Florence, after he had returned from a stay in Rome in 1560. His first patron was Hans Fugger who ordered the decoration of the Fugger mansion in Venice. He was the son-in-law of Jan Kraeck.

When William V took power and moved to the ducal residence, he brought Sustris to Munich in 1579 and put him in charge of all major artistic projects at court. In 1583 Sustris was appointed court painter and chief architect. He introduced the formal language of Italian Mannerism from Florence to Munich and thus played a key role in establishing the city as the leading German art centre of the late Renaissance. After the duke’s abdication in 1597, Sustris continued in his personal service.

In Munich Sustris contributed to the decoration of the Antiquarium of the Munich Residenz and laid out the adjoining Grotto Courtyard.

Between 1583 and 1597 his most important and best-known work was created: the Jesuit church of St Michael and the adjacent college, again in collaboration with Wendel Dietrich.

From 1593, Sustris worked at the Herzog-Max-Burg in Munich.

Sustris died in 1600.

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