German painter. The son of one Hermann Varworck, or tom Ring, he trained c. 1508-20 in the Netherlands, among other places. He designed his first woodcuts, including some bearing coats of arms, for the book printer Dietrich Tzwyfel in 1521. He became a member of the Münster painters' guild in 1533 but in February 1534, after supporting the Lutheran party in the council elections, left Münster for the Netherlands to escape the rule of the Anabaptists. This course made it easier to find work when he returned after their defeat by the Catholics, though he was passed over in appointments to offices and his son Hermann's epitaph (1548; Münster, Überwasserkirche) speaks of him receiving 'little recognition'. In 1537 he was commissioned to work for the parish of St Aegidius and Überwasser, and from 1541 for the town. //