(b Erlach, 1525; d Morges, 23 April 1571). Painter, designer and poet, son of (1) Niklaus Manuel Deutsch I. Probably apprenticed with Maximilian Wischack in Basle in the early 1540s, he often designed for publishers in that city, although he lived in Berne. Less than a dozen known independent pen drawings and stained-glass designs bear dates (1540–50) and the monogram RMD with dagger and ribbon. With their themes of mercenary life, they imitate works by his father and Urs Graf. His first dated and initialled woodcut is a Standard Bearer with camp follower (1546). In the following year Hans Rudolf copied Niklaus Manuel’s Confederate and Lansquenet drawings for woodcuts and added a verse dialogue to them. By 1548 he had written a carnival play, Das Weinspiel. He also designed greatly acclaimed topographical views of cities for Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographey. Many of these woodcuts are signed and dated, 1548 and 1549. A Battle of Sempach (1551), printed from six woodblocks, is characteristic of his meticulous but dry and eclectic work. His one extant oil painting represents his brother Niklaus Manuel the Younger (1553; Berne, Hist. Mus.) in full figure as mercenary against a landscape background. A pen contour design for stained glass of a Female Shieldbearer with a Judgement of Paris (1550s; Berne, Hist. Mus.) belongs with a group of drawings in this technique. Hans Rudolf also contributed seven signed woodcuts to the first modern book on mining, George Agricola’s De re metallica (Basle, 1556). They are the freshest among his designs. The artist was married twice (1558 and 1561) and called to the Great Council in 1560. From 1562 he was governor of Morges in the canton of Waadt.

Part of the Deutsch family

• Deutsch, Hans Rudolf Manuel
  • Deutsch