Piloty was born in
Munich. His father,
Ferdinand Piloty (d. 1844), enjoyed a great reputation as a
lithographer. In 1840, Karl was admitted as a student of the
Munich Academy, under the artists
Karl Schorn and
Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld. A year later the acclaimed history paintings (referred to as the 'Belgian paintings'), i.e. the
Compromise of the nobles and
The Abdication of Charles V by the two
Belgian artists
Edouard de Bièfve and
Louis Gallait, were shown in Munich and their realistic depiction of a historic subject matter made a lasting impression on him. After a journey to
Belgium,
France and
England, Piloty commenced work as a painter of
genre pictures, and, in 1853, produced a work,
Die Amme (
The Wet Nurse), which, on account of its originality of style, caused a considerable sensation in Germany at the time. But he soon forsook this branch of painting in favour of
historical subjects, and produced in 1854 for
King Maximilian II The Accession of Maximilian I to the Catholic League in 1609. It was succeeded by
Seni at the Dead Body of Wallenstein (1855), which gained for the young painter the membership of the Munich Academy, where he succeeded Schorn (his brother-in-law) as professor in 1856. Among other well-known works by Piloty are the
Battle of the White Mountain near Prague,
Nero Dancing upon the Ruins of Rome (1861),
Godfrey of Bouillon on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (1861),
Galileo in Prison (1864) and
The Death of Alexander the Great (unfinished), his last great work. He also executed a number of
mural paintings for the royal palace in Munich. He was a successful teacher, and among his more famous pupils were
Hans Makart,
Franz von Lenbach,
Franz Defregger,
Gabriel von Max,
Georgios Jakobides,
Eduard von Grützner, ==Gallery==