Events from the year 1542 in art.

• Painter Paul Lautensack is expelled from Nuremberg as a result of his Reformist fanaticism.

• Wen Zhengming – Wintry trees after Li Cheng
• Titian
  • Portrait of Clarissa Strozzi
  • Portrait of Ranuccio Farnese
• Bronzini – Crossing of the Red Sea
• Domenico Beccafumi – Madonna and Child with Infant John the Baptist

• date unknown - Joris Hoefnagel. Flemish painter and engraver (died 1601)
• probable
  • Gillis Coignet, Flemish painter (died 1599)
  • Ambroise Dubois, Flemish painter of the second School of Fontainebleau (died 1614)
  • Felice Riccio, Italian painter (died 1605)
  • Andrea Vicentino, Italian Mannerist painter (died 1617)
  • Federico Zuccari, Italian Mannerist painter and architect (died 1609)

• date unknown
  • Dosso Dossi, Italian Renaissance painter who belonged to the Ferrara School of Painting (born 1490)
  • Hans Krafft the Elder, German medallist (born 1481)
  • Jan van Amstel, Dutch Northern Renaissance painter (born 1500)
• probable
  • Francesco Xanto Avelli, Italian ceramicist (born 1487)
  • Vasco Fernandes, Portuguese Renaissance painter (born 1475)