Ernst Zacharias Platner was a German painter and writer born in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

. He was the son of anthropologist Ernst Platner

Ernst Platner

Ernst Platner was a German anthropologist, physician and philosopher born in Leipzig. He was father to painter Ernst Zacharias Platner ....

 (1744-1818).

He initially took art classes at the Academy in Leipzig, then continued his education in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 (from 1790), Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 (from 1797) and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 (1800), where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1823 he was appointed consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 to the Saxon Royal Court in Rome.

Among his better paintings were Lucretia

Lucretia

Lucretia is a legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by the Roman historian Livy and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , her rape by the king's son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the...

, Verstoßung der Hagar (The Dismissal of Hagar

Hagar (Bible)

Hagar , according to the Abrahamic faiths, was the second wife of Abraham, and the mother of his first son, Ishmael. Her story is recorded in the Book of Genesis, mentioned in Hadith, and alluded to in the Qur'an...

) and Hagar mit Ismael in der Wüste (Hagar and Ishmael

Ishmael

Ishmael is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first born child according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar...

 in the Desert). With Karl Bunsen

Christian Charles Josias Bunsen

Christian Charles Josias, Baron von Bunsen was a German diplomat and scholar.-Early life and education:Bunsen was born at Korbach, an old town in the little German principality of Waldeck....

, Barthold Georg Niebuhr

Barthold Georg Niebuhr

Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers...

, Eduard Gerhard, Ludwig von Urlichs

Ludwig von Urlichs

Karl Ludwig von Urlichs was a German philologist and archaeologist born in Osnabrück. He was the father of archaeologist Heinrich Ludwig Urlichs ....

and Wilhelm Röstell, he was co-author of Beschreibung der Stadt Rom (Description of the City of Rome).