Events from the year 1546 in art.

• The plan for the new St. Peter's Basilica dome, begun by Bramante, is continued by the new chief architect, Michelangelo.
• The Farnese Hercules is removed from the Baths of Caracalla by Cardinal Cardinal Alessandro Farnese to the Palazzo Farnese in Rome.^[1]

• Domenico Beccafumi – Pagan Child Couple
• Jacopo Bassano – The Adoration of the Shepherds
• Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta – Holy Family with Saint Michael
• Lorenzo Lotto – San Giacomo dell'Orio Altarpiece
• William Scrots
  • Anamorphic portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales
  • Henry Howard Earl of Surrey (attributed)
  • Elizabeth as a princess
• Titian – Pope Paul III and his Grandsons

• March 21 - Bartholomeus Spranger, Flemish Northern Mannerist painter, draughtsman, and etcher (died 1611)

• January 4 - Camillo Boccaccino, Italian painter active mainly in Cremona and regions of Lombardy (born 1511)
• January 11 - Gaudenzio Ferrari, Italian painter and sculptor of the Renaissance (born 1471)
• August 1 - Peter Faber (or Pierre Favre), French Jesuit painter and sculptor (born 1506)
• October 23 - Peter Flötner, German designer, sculptor, and printmaker (born 1490)
• November 1 - Giulio Romano, Italian painter and architect (born 1499)
• date unknown
  • Valerio Belli, Italian engraver and medallion maker (born 1470)
  • Jan van Calcar, Netherlands-born Italian painter, pupil of Titian (born 1499)
  • Bartolomeo Veneto - Italian portrait painter (born 1502)
• probable - Marinus van Reymerswaele, Dutch Renaissance painter (born 1490