Sigismund Streit was a prominent German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 merchant and art patron of the 18th century in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. Born in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, he came to Venice in 1709, where he accumulated substantial wealth. He died childless and bequeathed his collection to institutions in Germany, including the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster

Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster

The Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster is the oldest Gymnasium in Berlin and continues to this day as the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. It is a private school with a humanistic profile and known as one of the most prestigious schools in Germany...

 in Berlin.
He came to own paintings by Canaletto

Canaletto

Giovanni Antonio Canal better known as Canaletto , was a Venetian painter famous for his landscapes, or vedute, of Venice. He was also an important printmaker in etching.- Early career :...

, Antoine Pesne

Antoine Pesne

Antoine Pesne was the court painter of Prussia. Starting in the manner of baroque, he became one of the fathers of rococo in painting....

, Jacopo Amigoni

Jacopo Amigoni

Jacopo Amigoni , also named Giacomo Amiconi, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Rococo period, who began his career in Venice, but traveled and was prolific throughout Europe, where his sumptuous portraits were much in demand....

, Francesco Zuccarelli

Francesco Zuccarelli

Francesco Zuccarelli was an Italian Rococo painter.He was born at Pitigliano, in southern Tuscany, where he initially apprenticed with Paolo Anesi...

, and Giuseppe Nogari

Giuseppe Nogari

Giuseppe Nogari was a Venetian painter of the Rococo, where he painted mainly painted half-body portraits, either real or of historical and religious figures. They are striking for their emotional content, subdued decoration and coloration, and often display aged individuals in somewhat homely or...

. He was a contemporary of another patron Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg

Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg

Reichsfreiherr and Reichsgraf Marshal Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg was a distinguished aristocrat and general of Brandenburg-Prussian descent who served in the Saxon and Venetian armies in the early eighteenth century and found a second career in retirement in Venice, as a grand...

.