Peter Candid

His father Elias was a tapestry weaver who had been hired by the newly opened Medici weaving workshop, the Arazzeria Medicea, which was led by the Flemish master Jan Rost.

[2] The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno was a prestigious academy of artists in Florence whose members have included Michelangelo Buonarroti, Lazzaro Donati, Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini and others.

[5] Beginning in 1578 he painted a series of three altarpieces for churches in Volterra, including an Adoration of the Shepherds (1580) and a Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1585–86, Pinacoteca Civica).

[4] By 1586 he was called to the Ducal court of Munich upon the recommendation of the sculptor Giambologna, another Flemish artist working in Italy with whom Candid was closely associated.

[4] For the Duke and Elector Maximilian, Candid worked on several fresco cycles in numerous buildings, including the Antiquarium and the State Rooms of the ducal palace Munich Residenz and the State Room in the Schleissheim Palace and made the designs for the ceilings of the Goldener Saal in the Augsburg Town Hall.

[7] He completed many fresco's and oil paintings in Italy and also made tapestry designs and other works for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

[4] In Munich he initially worked as part of a team of Italian artists under the direction of the Dutch-Italian painter Friedrich Sustris, who had also been in Florence.

Candid further was responsible for all interior paintings at the new buildings added by Duke Maximilian to his palaces and continued to realise altar pieces.

He executed small paintings on copper panels on religious, mythological and allegorical themes in a Mannerist style.

Van der Biest had been invited from Flanders by the Duke to set up a tapestry workshop with craftsmen from the Low Countries in 1604.

Despite its modest size of about 20 weavers the workshop produced tapestries of an excellent quality with vibrant colours, dynamic scenes and entertaining details.