1556 in art

Works

• Sofonisba Anguissola – Self-portrait at the easel
• Jan Sanders van Hemessen – The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
• Paolo Veronese - ''Jupiter Hurling Thinderbolts at the Vices''

Births

• August 16 - Bartolomeo Cesi, Italian painter of the Bolognese School
• October 24 - Giovanni Battista Caccini, Italian sculptor
• date unknown
• *Giovanni Bizzelli, Italian painter
• *Aurelio Lomi, Italian painter of frescoes
• *Carlo Maderno, Italian sculptor
• *Alessandro Maganza, Italian Mannerist painter
• *Pietro Malombra, Italian painter
• *Lazzaro Tavarone, Genoese painter
• probable
• *Adrien de Vries, late Mannerist sculptor born in the Netherlands
• *Otto van Veen, painter, draughtsman, and humanist

Deaths

• April - Cristofano Gherardi, Italian Mannerist painter
• August 1 - Girolamo da Carpi, court painter and decorator to the Duke d'Este
• date unknown
• *Luca Penni, Italian painter, member of the School of Fontainebleau
• *Girolamo da Santa Croce, Italian Renaissance painter
• probable – Jan Mostaert, Haarlem painter