Rudolphine Prague

Dallo studio delle relazioni che intercorrono fra i Gonzaga duchi di Mantova e la casata degli Asburgo attraverso la consultazione del carteggio fra le due corti, si individuano alcune lettere di inizio Seicento nelle quali l’imperatore Rodolfo II chiede con insistenza a Vincenzo I Gonzaga l’invio del disegno del giardino “posto sopra le volte”. Perché mai questo giardino - identificabile probabilmente con il giardino pensile di Palazzo Ducale - risulta di tale interesse per l’imperatore? L’indagine mossa a partire dai documenti contenuti nelle Banche dati Gonzaga digitali mette a fuoco le caratteristiche e le vicende del giardino pensile, spostandosi poi a Praga: qui il fruttuoso confronto con studiosi austriaci e cechi approfondisce il quadro delle opere che, in quel momento, si stanno portando avanti sul castello imperiale, chiarendo le ragioni dell’interesse di Rodolfo II nei confronti dell’architettura gonzaghesca, identificata come modello di riferimento.

Ivo Purš, Vladimír Karpenko (eds.)

It is difficult to think of a theme in Bohemian and Central European history in the early modern age that is so popular and at the same time still today so little understood as that of the alchemy that is associated with the reign of the Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612). The blame for this can by no means be laid solely at the door of the wellknown film from the early 1950s, for it only took over the oversimplified picture of “Rudolfine alchemy” as it was developed in Czech and German historiography in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. This picture mixed legends with facts that could be historically documented, and which were consequently frequently interpreted incorrectly. It was not until the 1970s that the situation started to change, when a renewed interest in Mannerism and Rudolfine art led historians to examine other areas of Rudolfine culture, and therefore alchemy, too, which was a significant part of that culture. This interest was naturally accompanied by historians looking at alchemy itself in a different way, no longer seeing it simply as a predecessor of modern chemistry – and thus as a subject reserved for the specialised history of science – and starting to study it as a complex and significant cultural-historical and social phenomenon connected with other disciplines, technologies, and areas of the life of society, including not only medicine, mining and metallurgy, but also religion, visual art, and the representation of the nobility.
This publication deals both with activities that were directly supported by the Emperor Rudolf II, and also those that developer in the broader social circle connected with the imperial court. This extended beyond the Czech lands to take in Austria and many parts of the Holy Roman Empire. The theme under consideration is primarily delimited by the period of the reign of Rudolf II, from 1576 to 1612, but for a proper understanding of the context it is also essential to refer to the development of alchemical research in Central Europe roughly from the beginning of the 16th century, and it is likewise important to follow its repercussions in the 17th century.

Texts: Ivo Purš, Vladimír Karpenko, Jarmila Hausenblasová, William Eamon, René Zandbergen, Rafał T. Prinke, Hiro Hirai, Alena Richterová, Jakub Hlaváček, Josef Smolka, Václav Bůžek, John A. Norris, and Pavel Drábek

Second edition, first english edition, 869 pp., index of names, Praha 2016

Although painting at the court of the Emperor Rudolf II in Prague has been regarded as a distinctive artistic phenomenon since the early 20th century, finding a place for Rudolfine art in the history of European painting and in the art historiography of the individual Central European countries is still an open issue. The aim of this study is to identify the roots of this process by observing the changes that occurred in the discourse on Rudolfine painters in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, making use of contemporary literature and records about how their works were displayed in the visual context of the time.

A pre-study concerning history of the painting taken from Prague to Sweden
during the Thirty Years War is the Aim of this thesis.
An investigation of previous research concerning the looting of the paintings, until 1648 in royal
and noble collections in Prague. These became throught a plunder part of Swedish collection and
some remained in Sweden until today. The purpose is to prepare and present an examination of
this topic for future research. Whose collections possibly came to Sweden from Prague? The
peace negotiations were already done, and by attacking Prague Sweden had no change of
changing the outcome of these negotiations. Why did than did the looting take place? Was it the
monetary value of the art works that was interesting, are we dealing a demonstration of power,
what were the possible intentions of looting Prague? What was the destiny of the collections
after arriving to Sweden, how were they perceived? These questions will be discussed.
Published resources on this topic will be consulted, but the most important part of this thesis is
the investigation of archival resources. Material such as inventories and letters are briefly
studied and presented.
This research opens possibilities for a future research of the history and historical as well as
contemporary narrative of the paintings taken form Prague, many which are today part of
Swedish public collections

Das Werk einschließlich aller Abbildungen ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Collegium Carolinum unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Bearbeitung in elektronische Systeme. Für Form und Inhalt trägt der Verfasser die Verantwortung.

Although a number of Flemish artists settled at the court of Rudolf II Habsburg, in Prague, Denys Calvaert was the only one regularly based in Bologna. As of the beginning of the seventeenth century, Calvaert begins to paint erotic themes, absent in his previous production.
In this study, the author presents certain new paintings with large female nudes and considers if Calvaert might have been inspired by the works of artists such as Bartholomeus Spranger and Joseph Heintz. It is not completely clear how Calvaert was familiar with the paintings of the Rudolfine school: perhaps through the presence in Bologna of certain foreign collectors (such as Paulus Praun, a merchant from Nurnberg), or through his relationship with certain engravers such as Aegidius Sadeler, Pieter de Jode and Jacob Matham. The stylistic links between Calvaert
and the school of Prague are perfectly illustrated by the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine presented here. Although formerly attributed to Calvaert himself, it is actually by Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn. A comparison will be made with a painting in the National Museum of Warsaw. A beautiful, small unpublished painting representing Mars, Venus and Cupid is also attributed here to Ravesteyn.

In 1579 Rudolf II envisaged the construction of a grand royal palace at Prague Castle, with an extensive sculptural programme that he undoubtedly planned to commission from Giambologna’s pupil Hans Mont. However, Rudolf shelved the project and Mont left the Prague court in exasperation. In the early years of his reign, Rudolf was clearly looking for a style, and also the painter Bartholomeus Spranger, who waited for several years in Vienna for the emperor’s commission, fell victim to this search. His biographer Karel van Mander even wrote that Rudolf had little interest in art at that time. Thanks to a valuable report by Hans Ulrich Krafft in 1584, however, we know that the emperor already possessed a collection of art, but which had a distinctly erotic content. This was the reason why Rudolf concealed it from his wider society. It was not until 1588 that envoys at the Prague court began to report Rudolf’s preference for ‘lascivious’ art. It was also at the same time that the emperor decided to build a large picture gallery at the castle, called the Spanish Hall, the present Rudolf Gallery and established his magnificence and his reputation as one of the greatest patrons of art in Europe. On his way to it, he built the Summer House near his palace at the castle in about 1579–1582, and this became the home of his ‘erotic Kunstkammer’. Around 1586 he also had a studiolo created on the second floor of the White Tower, which shows that Rudolf was inspired by the towers of Neugebäude, but unlike this model, he kept the decoration in Prague modest, like in the summer palace in the Imperial Mill, which was completed in 1594. While in the older Habsburg architecture there was a contrast between the austere palaces and richly decorated leisure structures, Rudolf seems to have come up with a new concept: buildings with a representational function were to be elaborately articulated, whereas private structures, including summer houses, were to be of modest form. Spranger’s fresco of Hermathena in the vault of the studiolo, inspired by the studiolo in the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, was intended to symbolise to symbolise the abode of a wise monarch, as were other planned frescos. It was thus erotica & sapientia that defined Rudolf’s programme in his early years at Prague Castle, and later also played a crucial role in his subsequent magnificent period.

trivulziana» pubblicazioni della fondazione trivulzio v Aldèbar an storia dell ' arte a cura di sergio marinelli ii 2014 ISBN 978-88-96162-98-9 estratto da 1 Il nome Cosmo potrebbe essere stato scelto da Piazza in relazione all'omonimo eremo esistente a Pagnano d'Asolo, nella Marca Trevigiana, antico luogo di pellegrinaggio la cui chiesa assunse le forme attuali nel 1874. L'aspetto del romitorio anteriore a questo intervento è documentato da un'incisione di Pietro Marchioretto.

In 1559–1567, a new garden was created at Prague Castle, which Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol, residing at Prague Castle as the governor, established under his palace at the White Tower. The garden, which was later called Paradise Garden, was divided into three parts. The middle one was a formal garden arranged into quarters, in the eastern one there were an orchard and
a tower-shaped summer house, and in the western smaller part there was an aviary.

The article examines the motif of the Romanesque rotunda, a simple building with a circular ground plan, in the drawings and paintings of Netherlandish painter Roelandt Savery. So far, scholars have only paid marginal attention to the occurrence of this picturesque motif in Savery’s oeuvre. In fact, some of the drawn examples can be identified very accurately as particular churches in Prague, and their presence in his paintings seems not random, but rather systematic; it is in line with the historical imagination constantly present in Netherlandish painting.

MARIE BUŇATOVÁ: Trade Between Prague and Nuremberg in the First Half of the 16 th Century The study deals with the development of the economic relations between Prague and Nuremberg in the first half of the 16 th century analysed in the light of the legal documents which affected the bilateral trade (privileges, the Prague-Nuremberg treaty, hosting rights). At the same time, it provides information on the major buyers and on the networks of their customersupplier relations, the assortment of goods and the specific trade practices (factoring, consignment sales, loans).

Beket Bukovinská, Lubomír Konečný (eds.)

This publication of the Research Centre for Art and Culture during the Age of Rudolph II follows up on the proceedings of München–Prag um 1600 from 2009 and is a continuation of the project geared to mapping the contacts between the imperial court of Rudolph II and the royal courts of central Europe. This time as well, the volume presents the results of the international conference held in Dresden and Prague from 17 to 20 March 2015 in cooperation with Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. The first part of the volume shows the rich relationship between Prague and Dresden and the pan-European historical and cultural context around 1600 and the lesser known contacts between Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, and Wilhelm von Rosenberg. The individual, generally richly illustrated texts further map common interests relating to art, science, and culture and provide new knowledge of the transfer of artists between the two courts. The texts also document the exchange of scientific knowledge and emphasise the great importance of royal gifts.

Texts: Jan Baťa (Univerzita Karlova v Praze), Václav Bůžek (Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích), Wolfram Dolz, Michael Korey Peter Plaßmeyer, (Mathamatisch-Physikalischer Salon, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), Angelica Dülberg (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Sachsen), Eliška Fučíková (Praha), Vladimír Karpenko (Praha), Thomas DaCosta Kaufamnn (Princeton University), Jutta Kappel, Dirk Syndram, Ulrike Weinhold (Grünes Gewölbe SKD), Jürgen Müller (Technische Universität Dresden), Holger Schuckelt (Rüstkammer, SKD), Martin Šolc (Astronomický ústav UK), Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (University of Oxford), Jürgen Zimmer (Berlín), Beket Bukovinská, Martin Krummholz, Ivan P. Muchka, Ivo Purš (ÚDU AVČR)

First edition, German with English summary, 267 pages, colour illustrations, Praha 2017

Eine von Simon Frisius radierte und von Hendrick Hondius herausgegebene Folge zum Leben Christi von der Anbetung der Könige bis zum Einzug in Jerusalem zeigt im letzten Blatt bislang unerkannt die Prager Burg als Jerusalem, in das Jesus als Messias einzieht. Hondius und Frisius benutzten für die Ansicht der Prager Burg eine Zeichnung von Marten de Cock, bei der es sich höchstwahrscheinlich um eine Kopie nach Roelant Savery handelt, die jener 1613 in die nördlichen Niederlande zurückbrachte. Andeutungen von Bäumen und einer Bodenwelle mit schwarzer Kreide auf der Zeichnung belegen, dass das Blatt direkt für die Radierung benutzt wurde. Verschiedene Indizien weisen auf eine Entstehung der Folge um 1619/1620 hin. Meine These ist, dass es sich bei dem Einzug Christi in die „Prager Burg“ um eine Anspielung auf die Besteigung des böhmischen Throns durch Friedrich von der Pfalz handelt, wodurch der wahre apostolische Glaube Einzug in das Königreich Böhmen hielt, wo bislang die katholischen Habsburger herrschten. Hendrick Hondius selbst war ein lokal kirchenpolitisch engagierter, überzeugter Calvinist.

The imprint of lectures held at the Applied Arts Museum on 6 and 13 March 1904 to the same retrospective exhibition in the Museum of Decorative Arts business and trade chambers, accompanied by 32 drawings.

Brochure issued in Prague Decorative Arts Museum of Commerce and Trade Chamber in 1904.

Musta ruusu-satuni taustalla on useita lähteitä, joista merkittävimpiä lienevät Aimo Viherluodon Musta ruusu-tangon sanoitus, Gustav Meyrinkin Der Golem(1915)-romaani,  Grimm-veljesten Lumikki-satu ja William Shakespearen Romeo and Juliet-näytelmä. Sadun runot ovat omaa käsialaani Musta ruusu-tangon sanoitusta lukuunottamatta.





2011.

Dallo studio delle relazioni che intercorrono fra i Gonzaga duchi di Mantova e la casata degli Asburgo attraverso la consultazione del carteggio fra le due corti, si individuano alcune lettere di inizio Seicento nelle quali l’imperatore Rodolfo II chiede con insistenza a Vincenzo I Gonzaga l’invio del disegno del giardino “posto sopra le volte”. Perché mai questo giardino - identificabile probabilmente con il giardino pensile di Palazzo Ducale - risulta di tale interesse per l’imperatore? L’indagine mossa a partire dai documenti contenuti nelle Banche dati Gonzaga digitali mette a fuoco le caratteristiche e le vicende del giardino pensile, spostandosi poi a Praga: qui il fruttuoso confronto con studiosi austriaci e cechi approfondisce il quadro delle opere che, in quel momento, si stanno portando avanti sul castello imperiale, chiarendo le ragioni dell’interesse di Rodolfo II nei confronti dell’architettura gonzaghesca, identificata come modello di riferimento.

“‘Bella strada da confederarsi’. Stati, finanze, religione e lingua nella Dieta boema del 1615”, Adel und Religion in der frühneuzeitlichen Habsburgermonarchie. Annäherung an ein gesamtösterreichisches Thema [Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 68], a cura di K. Keller, P. Maťa, M. Scheutz, Wien 2017, pp. 63-83.

Když v roce 1526 nastoupil na český trůn rod Habsburků a zemím Koruny české pak vládl skoro čtyři staletí, vítal v Praze jeho prvního člena, Ferdinanda I., velkolepý královský palác, stojící v centru rozlehlého Pražského hradu. O necelé století později tam však byla situace zcela odlišná. Český král a římský císař Rudolf II. sídlil na samém okraji Pražského hradu v topograficky nevýhodném místě a Starý královský palác byl ponechán českým královským a stavovským úřadům a obchodníkům. I když šlo o radikální změnu a jednu z největších událostí v dějinách Pražského hradu, otázky proč, kdy a jak se tato velká translace rezidence odehrála, zásadní pro pochopení dějin tohoto ústředního místa českého státu, dosud nebyly položeny. Nejdůležitějším skutkem bylo přesídlení místodržícího vlády arcivévody Ferdinanda II. Tyrolského kolem roku 1555 do malého paláce u Bílé věže. Habsburští architekti Hans Tirol a Bonifác Wohlmut neúspěšně navrhovali malý palác spojit se Starým královským palácem novým křídlem a vybudovat tak důstojnou rezidenci s dostatečným počtem pokojů. K ideji se po svém nástupu na trůn v roce 1576 vrátil císař Rudolf II. a nechal dvěma florentskými architekty (Antonio Lupicini 1579 a Giovanni Gargiolli 1586) provést nový návrh, který byl ve Florencii konzultován s Francescem I. de’Medici a v druhém případě také upravován Bernardem Buontalentim. Rudolf však nakonec zvolil jinou strategii a soustředil se již jen na rozšiřování paláce u Bílé věže do míst bývalých příkopů, kde vybudoval křídla obsahující prostory pro jeho sbírky. Byl to tedy Rudolf II., kdo královskou a císařskou rezidenci na Pražském hradě přesunul na nové místo, zcela mimo historické těžiště hradu.

Hans Khevenhüller was imperial ambassador in Spain from 1574 to 1606, where he assumed the role of art dealer for his Habsburg patrons Maximilian II., Ferdinand II. and Rudolf II. Khevenhüller played a major role in the development of Kunstkammers, menageries and gardens in Vienna, Prague, Graz, Innsbruck and Munich. His thirty-three year residency in Iberia transformed Habsburg collecting in the late sixteenth century. A true Renaissance man with cultivated tastes and a discerning eye, Khevenhüller was responsible for the acquisition of wild and domestic animals, exotica, luxury goods, and jewelry: seeds, flowers and plants from Portuguese Asia and the Americas, which he shipped under very difficult circumstances from Madrid to Central Europe. His vast network of merchants in Lisbon, Seville and Goa was invaluable, and he cultivated reliable informants in Iberia, the Americas and Asia, taking advantage of Fugger agents, Konrad Rott in Lisbon and Ferdinand Cron, who resided for 37 years in Portuguese India. Cron was Khevenhüller’s link between Goa, Japan, South China, Lisbon and Madrid.

This paper investigates both the known life and letters of neo-Latin poet Elizabeth Jane Weston (b. Oxfordshire, 1581? d. Prague, 1612) as well as the geopolitics surrounding how that life has been reported and misreported. Born in England, Weston (or “Westonia”) spent almost all of her life in what’s now the Czech Republic. She’s been frequently hailed as a Catholic poetess despite marrying an agent for Christian of Anhalt; she was hailed as an “English Virgin” despite birthing six children; she was declared one of the “Nine Muses” despite (her own) complaints that the editor of her work (Silesian aristocrat Georg Martinius von Baldhofen ) had changed the words of her poems; she had virtually no means of her own but managed to have letters and poems received by men ranging from Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to England’s King James I, and at one point was better known in Hungary than in Bohemia or England. Meanwhile, twenty-first century interest in Westonia appears sparked more by the discovery that she was the step-daughter of controversial English alchemist Sir Edward Kelley than by the newly rediscovered elegiac poems of her which had been seized from the Imperial Library and wound up in Sweden. An investigation of Westonia’s life raises many questions: how and why she had access to so many powerful men, how and why her descendants wound up in Hungary, how and why her papers wound up offered to German Kapellmeister Heinrich Shutz rather than given to her own family, and indeed why she has at turns been erased, revived, erased and re-presented. In every instance, we’ll find that these questions ultimately tell us as much about shifting central European political alliances as they do about Elizabeth Weston.

In:  O p u s c u l a H i s t o r i a e A r t i u m, 6 1 (2 0 1 2), s. 120 - 133.

Abstract:
The study presents the collection of nine portraits of “famous men”, preserved in the collection of Červený Kameň Museum, which has so far not been published. Recent research has revealed many unsuspected facts, as a result of which it has been possible not only to identify the
portraitees and to determine who commissioned most of the portraits and the approximate date they were painted, but also to establish the specific historical and political circumstances to which the paintings reacted in very topical ways. The collection of paintings, arranged in a grid system in wall panelling or a coffered ceiling, was originally without doubt considerable larger. It was commissioned by Baron Miklós II Pálffy, a Hungarian and Lower Austrian aristocrat from the era of the Emperors Maximilian II and Rudolf II, who wanted to visually demonstrate his high-level international contacts by having these portraits in his dynastic residence in Červený Kameň castle. From
an art-historical viewpoint, however, the collection is also a significant example reflecting trends in official portraits in the Habsburg courts in Hungary and in the Central European area in general: it clearly confirms Pálffy’s connections with the court milieus in Prague, Vienna, and
Innsbruck, and also with the Lower Austrian aristocratic scene.

The paper draws attention to a small, finely executed pen drawing in the Victoria & Albert Museum London, long time hidden under the wrong attribution to Abraham Bloemaert. The drawing shows the Union of Painting and Sculpture, crowned by Minerva with a laurel wreath in an idealized artist’s studio. Style and iconography are pointing to the circle of Rudolfinian artists with relations to Hans von Aachen, Joseph Heintz and Hans Rottenhammer, but the author of the works remains unfortunately unknown.

The book was published in Prague in 1884

Annotation:

The second volume topography of Prague Catholic religious monuments from r. 1884 includes a description and history of the existing buildings in the New Town, Vysehrad and in the suburbs complete the second part of the information about sacred places forfeited and canceled. The monumental two-volume work of a Catholic priest, historian and writer, includes geographically and according to the then parish settlements structured inventory of Prague Catholic landmark 80s of the 19th century. (first episode - Volume I and Volume Part 2) as well as sacred sites by then already extinct and canceled (the second part - the conclusion of Volume II). Besides a detailed description of the objects, the author tried to assemble as complete as possible, albeit brief history of the place to which they attached, as appropriate, as well as general facts of Czech history and Czech church history. It also describes the formation and action of religious orders who had their monasteries in Prague, says the priests who are in their spiritual work to do, and literature, mentions former and current religious brotherhoods and provides information about the parish registries (where they are stored, what they contain). Not neglect statistical data (number of parishioners in the parish church, the number of priests, the language of worship, the church's patron, etc.). Orientation in a large text makes it easier to register.