(bapt Tüngersheim, nr Würzburg, 20 May 1713; d Würzburg, 20 Feb 1759). German painter. He came from a family of painters and probably first studied under his father, Georg Sebastian Urlaub (1685–1763). With the support of Friedrich Karl von Schönborn, Prince–Bishop of Würzburg, he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna from 1737 to 1741, after which he returned to work in Würzburg. In 1744 he left for Italy, where he studied (1745–7) at the Accademia Clementina (now Accademia di Belle Arti e Liceo Artistico) in Bologna and was awarded several prizes. In 1749 he went to Venice to study the works of Giambattista Tiepolo. He returned to Germany in 1751 and painted altarpieces and frescoes in Würzburg and its environs. Other than a few drawings from his years in Bologna (Accad. B.A. & Liceo A.) his first documented works are the ceiling fresco of the Apotheosis of the Cross (1752; Ipthausen, Wallfahrtskirche Mariae Geburt.) and two altarpieces in the Augustinerkirche in Würzburg, the Glorification of Christ and the Circumcision (both 1753; destr.), which show the distinct influence of Tiepolo, who was working at the Residenz in Würzburg at that time. Urlaub’s frescoes in S Wendelin, Eyershausen (Adoration of the Magi and Last Supper, both 1753), and in SS Martin and Johann Nepomuk, Königheim (Adoration of the Magi, 1759), are mostly without illusionistic construction, the focus of the paintings being concentrated in the area around the balustrades. His several easel paintings of biblical subjects (e.g. Story of Joseph; Würzburg, Mainfränk. Mus.) and his few portraits (e.g. Johann Georg Oegg; Würzburg, Mainfränk. Mus.) are strong in expression but somewhat dull in colour.