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(4) Joseph [Giuseppe] Heintz [Heinz; Ens; Enzo; Heintz di Augusta] (ii)
(b Augsburg, c. 1600; d Venice, 24 Sept 1678). Painter and etcher, son of (2) Joseph Heintz (i). He served his apprenticeship (1617–21) as a painter with his stepfather, Matthäus Gundelach, in Augsburg. His artistic beginnings are traceable in drawings produced in Augsburg (e.g. the Painter at his Easel, 1621; Gdansk, N. Mus.), and Venice (e.g. Genius of Painting, 1625; Vienna, Albertina). His great panel painting Christ in Limbo (late 1620s or early 1630s; sold London, Sotheby’s, 6 July 1994, lot 4391) bears witness to his conversion to Catholicism, without which he could hardly have established himself in Venice. He probably spent long periods in Rome in the 1630s or 1640s, and before 1644 Urban VIII made him a Knight of the Golden Spur. Many of his paintings on religious themes, including works supporting the Counter-Reformation, were predominantly for churches in Venice and its dominions. However, his special importance for Venetian painting lies not in the field of religious art but in his depictions (mostly Venice, Bib. Correr) of the city’s festivities and state ceremonies, featuring large numbers of figures, in which he was a direct precursor of Luca Carlevaris and Canaletto, as revealed especially in his Piazza S Marco (after 1640; Rome, Gal. Doria-Pamphili). Presumably he knew of the similar endeavours of his cousin Joseph Plepp (1595–1642) in Berne. He also produced genre paintings, such as the Fishmonger (1650s; Italy, priv. col., see 1959 exh. cat., p. 123) votive pictures, including the Adoration of the Magi (?1669) and Sacra conversazione (1669; both Breguzzo, S Andrea); allegories, for example the Allegory of Venice (1674; Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.); pictures showing the activities of the months and mythological scenes of which there is so far only a literary record.
Part of the Heintz family
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