Andreas Prater studied Art History, Classical Archaeology, Psychology, and Philosophy at Munich and Salzburg. After teaching at Braunschweig, Munich and Giessen, he was appointed professor of  Art History at the University of Freiberg im Breisgau. The breadth of his interests, which range from the great artists of the Baroque to ornamentation and the study of emblems, has led him to study various aspects of the work of Altdorfer, Mantegna, Raphael, Cellini, and Poussin, among others. Prominent among his extensive bibliography are Michelangelos Capella Medicea. Beobachtungen zur Architektur und zum Ornament (1974, his doctoral thesis), Cellinis Salzfaß für Franz I. Ein Tischgerät als Herrschaftszeichen (1988), and Licht und Farbe bei Caravaggio. Studien zur Ästhetik und Ikonologie des Helldunkels (1982, the post-doctoral thesis that qualified him for his university post).