Written by Sir Lawrence Gowing
Written by Sir Lawrence Gowing
Western painting
Written by Sir Lawrence Gowing
By far the most ambitious patron of Mannerist art in Europe north of Italy was the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II, who in the late 1570s established his court at Prague. Between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, Rudolf employed architects, sculptors, and painters to create impressive artistic works for his court, much as Cosimo de’ Medici had done in Florence. Spranger’s “Allegory of Rudolf II” indicates the quality of Rudolf’s court art and its clear Mannerist sympathies—sensually graceful figures clad in the dress of classical antiquity and a cultivated facility in composition ... (100 of 71,656 words)Bohemia