WOENSAM of Worms Anton

(Worms c.1493 – Cologne 1541)

German painter and engraver, son of Jaspar Woensam “the elder”, also an active painter in the early 16th century.
The date of his birth is not certain, but it can be placed between 1493 and 1500, presumably in Worms, a town on the banks of the Rhine from which he took his name. From 1513 his family was resident in Cologne and it was in this city that Anton carried out his artistic activity.
Skilled draftsman and xylographer, he illustrated almost all the numerous editions of the Bible in Latin and German and other sacred scriptures printed in Cologne between 1518 and 1541 by Peter Quentell (son of the famous publisher Henry Quentell).
His xylographic masterpiece is a broad view of Cologne, taken from the bank of the Rhine, formed by several tables to compose a view of about three meters. The year of his death is linked to a document in which he bequeaths his house. Probably, he died because of plague.