1556 in art

• Sofonisba Anguissola – Self-portrait at the easel • Jan Sanders van Hemessen – The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant • Paolo Veronese - Jupiter Hurling Thinderbolts at the Vices (Begun in 1554 - completed in 1556 - created for the Sala dei Consiglio dei Dieci, of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, now in the collection of the Louvre) ==Births==

• August 16 - Bartolomeo Cesi, Italian painter of the Bolognese School (died 1629) • October 24 - Giovanni Battista Caccini, Italian sculptor (died 1613) • date unknown • Giovanni Bizzelli, Italian painter (died 1612) • Aurelio Lomi, Italian painter of frescoes (died 1622) • Carlo Maderno, Italian sculptor (died 1629) • Alessandro Maganza, Italian Mannerist painter (died 1630) • Pietro Malombra, Italian painter (died 1618) • Lazzaro Tavarone, Genoese painter (died 1641) • probable • Adrien de Vries, late Mannerist sculptor born in the Netherlands (died 1626) • Otto van Veen, painter, draughtsman, and humanist (died 1629) ==Deaths==

• April - Cristofano Gherardi, Italian Mannerist painter (born 1508) • August 1 - Girolamo da Carpi, court painter and decorator to the Duke d'Este (born 1501) • date unknown • Luca Penni, Italian painter, member of the School of Fontainebleau (born 1500) • Girolamo da Santa Croce, Italian Renaissance painter (born 1480/1485) • probable – Jan Mostaert, Haarlem painter (born 1475)