Hans Bock l’Ancien
Born in 1550.
Died in 1624.
Hans Bock the Elder is documented as a painter, draughtsman, restorer, and surveyor.
Trained in the circle of Hans Hug Kluber, he joined Kluber’s workshop in 1571 as a journeyman, arriving from Strasbourg, and was received as a master into the Zunft zum Himmel guild in 1572.
In the context of public commissions, he executed decorations above the portals of Basel’s Rathaus between 1608 and 1611, comprising the city’s coat of arms, allegories of Victory holding palm branches, and a procession of children.
His professional network included influential patrons in the city: he received commissions from figures such as Felix Platter and Basilius Amerbach; for example, a portrait of Felix Plattner dated 1584 is preserved at the University of Basel.
Alongside his pictorial activities, Bock worked as a surveyor: he surveyed Basel in 1588 and, in 1623, produced a complete plan of the city and its surroundings at a scale of 1:6500. This cartographic aspect is attested in archival notices, notably at the Staatsarchiv Basel-Landschaft, which preserves references to him as a cartographer.
Taken together, these elements trace the career of a professional active in Basel from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth century, engaged in painting, the restoration of earlier works, and the production of geometric and cartographic surveys.