Events from the year 1586 in art.

• Flemish refugee Adam van Noort is commissioned by the County of the City of Coventry to produce a painting of local heroine Lady Godiva.

• Anonymous – Portrait of Sir Henry Unton
• Giuseppe Arcimboldo – An Allegory of Death
• Federico Barocci – Vocation of Saints Peter and Andrew (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium)
• Hieronimo Custodis – Edward Talbot
• El Greco – The Burial of the Count of Orgaz

• date unknown
  • Giovanni Stefano Marucelli, Italian painter and architect active mainly in Tuscany (died 1646)
  • Orazio Riminaldi, Italian Caravaggisti painter of the Baroque period (died 1631)
  • Tiberio Tinelli, Italian painter of portraits of aristocracy, merchants, and intellectuals in Venice (died 1638)
  • Luis Tristán, Spanish painter (died 1624)
• probable
  • Massimo Stanzione, Italian Caravaggisti Baroque painter of frescoes (died 1656)
  • Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (died 1647)

• January 25 - Lucas Cranach the Younger, German painter and wood-engraver (born 1515)
• May 9 - Luis de Morales, Spanish painter (born 1510)
• date unknown
  • Francesco Camilliani, Italian sculptor (born 1530)
  • Pedro Campaña, Flemish painter (born 1503)
  • Giovanni Battista Maganza, Italian religious painter (born c.1513)
  • Matthias Zündt, German engraver (born 1496)