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(1) Hans Georg Asam
(b Rott am Inn, 10 Oct 1649; d Sulzbach, bur 7 March 1711). Painter. The son of Christoph Asam, a master brewer at the Benedictine abbey at Rott am Inn, in 1679–80 he was apprenticed in Munich to the court painter Nikolaus Prugger and in 1680 married Prugger’s daughter Maria Theresia. She frequently assisted him in his commissions, which were mainly for monasteries, painting stucco, woodwork and sculpture. In 1682–3 Hans Georg painted his largest commission, 58 portraits of abbots for Benediktbeuren Abbey and 8 pictures showing the monastery’s history; then until 1687 he decorated the ceiling of its abbey church with frescoes of the Life of Christ and the Last Judgement. Subsequently he spent several months in Italy, visiting Venice and possibly Rome. Italian influence shows in his work in the abbey church (now St Quirin) at Tegernsee, where for the first time he painted the interior of a cupola (1689–93; see fig.). He then worked in Munich and the Upper Palatinate. Between 1700 and 1707 he painted frescoes (destr.) depicting biblical, historical and mythological scenes for the castle of Graf Lorenz von Tilly in Helfenberg. In 1708–10 he collaborated with his sons on the Maria-Hilf-Kirche in Freystadt. Hans Georg was chiefly inspired by Italian High Baroque painting, such as the richly figured, perspectival ceiling frescoes of Andrea Pozzo. He was also influenced by 16th-century Venetian painting (Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese). Asam’s painting is sometimes decorative, with much use of quadratura. Besides frescoes, Hans Georg also painted altarpieces, for instance those in the church (1690) of Rottach-Egern and in the Hofkapelle (1710–11) at Sulzbach-Rosenberg. The altarpiece for St Egidius, Harenzhofen, was completed by his wife Maria Theresia in 1710, while that at St Andreas, Helfenberg, was completed by Cosmas Damian in 1711.
Part of the Asam family
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