Ludger tom Ring the Elder

The art of portraiture had been rediscovered during the Renaissance, during which time the newly developed technique of oil painting pioneered by van Eyck, which has revolutionized art, had spread throughout Europe.

Leading German portrait artists including Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Holbein the Younger had all mastered oil painting technique in the past few decades.

Two generations of the tom Ring family paint for the Catholic Church in Münster, the site of the violent Münster Rebellion of 1534-35.

The first known painter in the family, Ludger tom Ring the Elder, and his eldest son, Hermann tom Ring (1521-1597), are highly esteemed in Münster for their versatility, not only painting panels and murals but also designing prints for books and woodcuts and even, to judge from compasses in their portraits, working as architects.

Ludger tom Ring the Younger, unlike his father and brother, proclaims himself a Protestant, which apparently causes no family schism.

He apprentices to his father, stays in the family home and then lives with his brother, primarily painting portraits and still-lifes; he will earn his living by painting the aristocracy in Lower Saxony in formats ranging from miniatures to full-length.