Putti raising a festoon of flowers

Initially primarily a history painter, von Tamm quickly changed to specialise in still life painting, influenced by the work of artists such as Snyders and Fyt. Resident in Rome from 1685 to 1695, he was introduced into the city's Flemish/Italian circle of artists by Gaspar van Wittel, working on occasion there with Pieter van Bloemen and Carel van Vogelaer; he subsequently became a follower of Carlo Maratti, who painted the figures in many of his still-lifes and through whom he gained commissions from the Roman patrician families whose patronage made him known in Spain, France, England and Germany. From the mid-1690s he lived and worked in Vienna as painter to the imperial court, leaving only occasionally to work in Liechtenstein and Passau (1702).