Benjamin Block

Benjamin Block, Benjamin Blok (* 1631 in Lübeck, † 1689 in Regensburg ) was a German portrait painter.

Life

Block probably went with his father Daniel Block in the teaching as well as his brothers Emmanuel and Adolf. 1653 he lived in the Belgian hall and went from there to Vienna at his brother. There he met the Hungarian Count Franz Nádasdy know. In 1653 he went on his invitation to him to Hungary and lived there for three years. 1659 he went to Rome, where he worked as a portraitist of the aristocracy and also visited Florence, Venice and Siena. The early 1660s, he settled in Nuremberg and Regensburg. For Emperor Leopold I, he created an entire art gallery. Block was one of the first who applied the new technique of mezzotint. He soon became one of the most popular and most sought after portraitists of his time.

Block was married to the flower painter Anna Catherina of block.