Michael Angelo Immenraet

Michael Angelo Immenraet (1621–1683) was a Flemish history and portrait painter who is mainly remembered for a lavish Baroque painting series of biblical scenes that he produced for the Unionskirche, Idstein in Germany.

Life Philips Augustijn Immenraet was born on 18 October 1621 in Antwerp. His father was an immigrant German piano builder, and his younger brother, Philips Augustijn Immenraet, was a successful landscape painter. It is not clear with whom he trained but on the basis of his style he is often regarded as a painter from the school of Peter Paul Rubens.

Immenraet married Maria Vergouwen, the sister of the painter Johanna Vergouwen on 8 February 1661. Immenraet and his sister-in-law Johanna Vergouwen engaged in extensive legislation regarding the inheritance of his deceased wife.

In 1661, Immenraet painted a chimney piece in The Hague for the 'Hofje van Nieuwkoop', a housing project for poor widows funded from the inheritance of Johan de Bruijn van Buijtewech, a rich citizen of The Hague. The chimney piece represents the double portrait of Odilia and Philippina Maria van Wassenaer, the nieces of van Buijtewech and two first governesses of the project. The two young governesses are depicted as shepherdesses.

He was registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1663. The difficulty for the artists was to create a language that corresponded to Lutheran sensitivities. The programme of works all represent scenes from the Bible without any depictions of saints as would typically have been the case in a Catholic church. The works represented the stories from the Bible as ever present, living realities. The Biblical figures are dressed in courtly Baroque garments. The painting of the "Visitation" shows Mary arriving with a servant who carries her cases on his head. Saint Elisabeth's residence with its formal garden in the background resembles the Idstein residential palace of Johann of Nassau-Idstein, the construction of which was commenced in 1646. The subjects and the use of Baroque optical illusionism in the paintings in the center of the ceiling are intended to make the viewer look up, from altar to the back: The Transfiguration, the Elevation of the Holy Cross, The Resurrection, The Deposition, The Ascension and The Vision of St. John on Patmos. At the time, the series of works was regarded as a remarkably unique Baroque contribution to church decoration in Protestant Germany.