• A new, enlarged edition of Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects is published, including a new section on Leonardo da Vinci.

•  
  Bruegel, The Blind Leading the Blind
•  
  Bruegel, The Peasant Wedding
•  
  Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Self-portrait

Paintings edit

• Pieter Bruegel the Elder
  • The Blind Leading the Blind
  • The Peasant Wedding
  • The Tower of Babel^[1]
• El Greco – The Last Supper
• Gian Paolo Lomazzo – Self-portrait

• January 20 - Ventura Salimbeni, Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker (died 1613)
• March 16 - Juan Martínez Montañés, also known as el Dios de la Madera, Spanish sculptor (died 1649)
• May 9 - Guglielmo Caccia called il Moncalvo, Italian painter who specialised in altar-pieces (died 1625)^[2]
• date unknown
  • Alessandro Albini, Italian painter of the early Baroque period (died 1646)
  • Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flemish painter (died 1625)
  • Giovanni Battista Calandra, Italian mosaic artist (died c.1644)
  • Vincenzo Carducci, Italian painter (died 1638)
  • Andrés de la Concha, Spanish painter (died unknown)
  • Adam van Vianen, Dutch Golden Age medallist, engraver and silversmith (died 1627)
• probable
  • Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavaliere d'Arpino, Italian painter (died 1640)^[3]

• June 5 - Willem Key, Flemish painter (born 1515)
• date unknown
  • Pierre Bontemps, French sculptor (born 1505)
  • Battista del Moro, Italian painter of the Renaissance period active in his native Verona (born 1512)
  • Lodovico Dolce, Italian art theorist (born 1508/1510)
  • Lucas Gassel, Flemish painter (born 1490)
  • Vincenzo Pagani, Italian painter (born 1490)
  • Luis de Vargas, Spanish painter (born 1502)
  • Wang Guxiang, Chinese landscape painter during the Ming Dynasty (born 1501)
  • 1568/1569 - Jacob Binck, German engraver and painter (born between 1490-1504)