Events from the year 1556 in art.

• Sofonisba Anguissola – Self-portrait at the easel
• Jan Sanders van Hemessen – The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
• Paolo Veronese - Jupiter Hurling Thinderbolts at the Vices (Begun in 1554 - completed in 1556 - created for the Sala dei Consiglio dei Dieci, of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, now in the collection of the Louvre)

• August 16 - Bartolomeo Cesi, Italian painter of the Bolognese School (died 1629)
• October 24 - Giovanni Battista Caccini, Italian sculptor (died 1613)
• date unknown
  • Giovanni Bizzelli, Italian painter (died 1612)
  • Aurelio Lomi, Italian painter of frescoes (died 1622)
  • Carlo Maderno, Italian sculptor (died 1629)
  • Alessandro Maganza, Italian Mannerist painter (died 1630)
  • Pietro Malombra, Italian painter (died 1618)
  • Lazzaro Tavarone, Genoese painter (died 1641)
• probable
  • Adrien de Vries, late Mannerist sculptor born in the Netherlands (died 1626)
  • Otto van Veen, painter, draughtsman, and humanist (died 1629)

• April - Cristofano Gherardi, Italian Mannerist painter (born 1508)
• August 1 - Girolamo da Carpi, court painter and decorator to the Duke d'Este (born 1501)
• date unknown
  • Luca Penni, Italian painter, member of the School of Fontainebleau (born 1500)
  • Girolamo da Santa Croce, Italian Renaissance painter (born 1480/1485)
• probable – Jan Mostaert, Haarlem painter (born 1475)