Prague Castle Picture Gallery - Rudolphian Beauty

There are three traditional ways to look at Rudolph II – as an ineffective ruler, whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years’ War, the more gentle one as a great Renaissance art patron, and, finally – an adorer of occult arts and learning, standing as a seeder of the scientific revolution.

Rudolf loved collecting paintings, he spared no expense in acquiring great past masterworks, such as those of Durer and Brueghel. Rudolf’s galleries were the most impressive in Europe at the time, and the greatest collection of mannerism to this day.

As was customary at the time, the collection was private, but friends of the Emperor, artists, and professional scholars were allowed to study it. Regrettably, Rudolf’s successors did not appreciate the collection and it gradually fell into disarray.

The pieces of art collected by Rudolph II were packed and travelled to Vienna very soon after his death, and the rest were plundered by the Swedish armada. But now it is the time when they are, just for a short time, coming back to the authentic setting of Prague castle. It is possible to see four unique pieces – B. Spranger’s and H. Aachen’s paintings, and A. de Vriese statues. They cohere religious and mythological themes together with eroticism, which the Emperor especially favoured.

You can see the exhibition Rudolphian Beauty daily 9 – 18 in the Prague Castle Picture Gallery until 31th March 2008.