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Note: Stradanus spent most of his career in Italy. After training under his father and another Bruges painter, he studied under Pieter Aertsen in Antwerp in 1537. Around 1545 he joined Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke, then left for Italy via Lyons, France. He worked in Florence and Rome, including under Giorgio Vasari on frescoes and tapestry cartoons for the Palazzo Vecchio. Variant names Giovanni Stradano or Jan Van der Straet or van der Straat or Stradanus or Strate From the Getty's website (www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=627&page=1) b. 1523 Bruges, Belgium, d. 1605 Florence, Italy Painter Flemish Stradanus spent most of his career in Italy. After training under his father and another Bruges painter, he studied under Pieter Aertsen in Antwerp in 1537. Around 1545 he joined Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke, then left for Italy via Lyons, France. After six months in Venice, Stradanus settled in Florence, designing tapestry cartoons for Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. From 1550 to 1553, he was probably in Rome, first collaborating on the Belvedere gallery in the Vatican and later assisting Francesco Salviati, whose style influenced him greatly. Back in Florence, Stradanus worked under Giorgio Vasari on frescoes and tapestry cartoons for the Palazzo Vecchio, an activity he continued as an independent artist in the 1570s. Initially influenced by Antwerp Mannerism, Stradanus's art evolved to combine a figure style shaped by Vasari and Tintoretto with Northern European interest in naturalistic and topographical details. Between 1567 and 1577, Stradanus designed the cartoons for the Hunting Scene tapestry for Cosimo's villa at Poggio a Caiano near Florence. The cartoons were so successful he did two more series, published as engravings by Antwerp printmakers. He also painted altarpieces. After working in Flanders and Naples in the late 1570s, Stradanus returned to Florence.