1578 in art

Events

• March 8 - On the death of Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Küstrin, her husband, Margrave George Frederick I of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach commissions a monument by Willem van Bloche.

Works

• George Gower – Lady Philippa Coningsby
• Cornelis Ketel – Portraits
• *Richard Goodricke of Ribston
• *''Thomas Pead''

Births

• March 17 – Francesco Albani, Italian painter
• August 10 – Matteo Rosselli, Italian painter of historical paintings in the late Florentine and early Baroque
• October 12 – Baldassare Aloisi, Italian portrait painter and engraver
• date unknown
• *Jan Baptist Barbé, Flemish engraver
• *Battistello Caracciolo, Italian painter
• *Agostino Ciampelli, Italian fresco painter
• *Adam Elsheimer, German "cabinet" painter
• *Fede Galizia, Italian still life painter
• *Ottavio Leoni, Italian painter and printmaker
• *Francisco Lopez Caro, Spanish painter
• *Bartolomeo Schedoni, Italian painter
• *Jean Toutin, French enamel worker, one of the first artists to make enamel portrait miniatures
• *Alessandro Turchi, Italian painter
• *Hieronymus Francken II, Flemish painter
• *Francesco Stringa, Italian court painter for Duke Ranuccio I Farnese
• probable
• *Guy François, French painter
• *Iwasa Matabei, Japanese painter
• *Pieter Neeffs I, Flemish Baroque painter who specialized in architectural interiors of churches
• *Gerrit van Bloclant, Dutch Renaissance painter

Deaths

• January 5 – Giulio Clovio, Croatian illustrator and miniaturist
• February 5 – Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian Mannerist painter
• March 17 - Cornelis Cort, Dutch engraver and draughtsman
• August 28 - Giovanni Battista Zelotti, Italian painter
• October 13 - Jean Bullant, French sculptor and architect
• Date unknown
• *Pierre Lamo, Italian history painter
• *Bernardino Lanini, Italian Renaissance painter active mainly in Milan
• *Benedetto Pagni, Italian painter
• *Qian Gu, Chinese landscape painter during the Ming Dynasty
• *Raffaellino da Reggio, Italian Mannerist painter