Cristoph Amberger

This Augsburg painter in the 1530s kept a tiny dog in his studio, which he’d set loose to “inspect” portraits mid-work—if the dog barked, the face wasn’t lively enough. He painted fur so finely you can count whiskers, but his sitters still look like they might step out of the frame and ask for directions to the town pump. Hunt down his *Portrait of a Man* at the Alte Pinakothek and watch the dog’s ghost still sniffing at the collar.