In the melancholy king's court

The Habsburg ruler Rudolf II left an indelible mark on Bohemia during his reign in the last quarter of the 16th century and the first years of the 17th century, transforming Prague Castle into a flourishing center for the arts, protoscience, the occult and other esoteric interests. He may have lacked political genius, but he personally nurtured the arts and early scientific exploration in a way Prague had not seen before - nor has seen since.

Joining Rudolf's court of artists, alchemists and charlatans in 1592 was the German painter Hans von Aachen, who nearly four centuries after his death is having his first retrospective in the city where he made his most important artistic contribution, within the same castle walls where he worked and lived. This is the first major showing of Aachen's work in Prague. (The exhibition opened at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, Germany, and after it closes in Prague it will travel to Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum.)

Born in Cologne in 1552, Aachen had been courted by Rudolf II since around 1587. By then, Aachen had received artistic training in his native Germany and also had trained and worked in Venice, Rome and Florence. Rudolf began by entrusting Aachen with buying paintings for the emperor's collection on his travels throughout Europe.

On New Year's Day 1592, Aachen was elevated to the position of court painter "von Haus aus," and his status as external court artist left him free to sojourn elsewhere in order to complete commissions. Aachen settled permanently in Prague in 1596, making his home near the St. George Convent inside the castle walls with his new bride, Regina, the daughter of the composer Orlando di Lasso.

As Rudolf II's court artist, Aachen performed more than just the traditional function of bespoke painter. He was a trusted art adviser, recommending and negotiating the purchase for Rudolf of important works including Dürer's Adoration of the Magi altarpiece in Wittenburg. He also took on a diplomatic role for Rudolf II and was a confidant to the emperor. He even helped him vet prospective brides. When, at an advanced age, Rudolf was in the market for a wife, he sent Aachen out across Europe between 1603 and 1605 to paint portraits of marriage candidates among the nobility. (The emperor died in 1612 without having found a suitable wife.) While on these missions, Aachen reported back to Rudolf not only about the suitability of young noblewomen but also about possible art acquisitions.

Rudolf had great trust in Aachen, and aside from specific assignments such as portraits, he did not dictate subject matter to him. No other Rudolfine court painter had such facility with so many different genres: portraiture, mythology, religious scenes, genre scenes, allegories, history painting, landscapes, still lifes and others.

Aachen's greatest talent is with the human figure, and especially the portrait. His earliest works in the show are self-portraits, including a captivating double self-portrait in which the painter's alter ego mischievously pulls on the artist's ear lobe. This contrasts with a dark and serious self-portrait from 1590 in which the pigment is laid on rough-textured canvas and his visage is very difficult to discern.

With the considerable latitude Rudolf gave him, Aachen often chose nontraditional subject matter, such as Laughing Couple With a Money Purse and Young Woman With a Man and a Mirror, both from the mid-1590s and both featuring the leering and laughing painter himself.

One of the highlights of Aachen's portraiture is his well-known painting of the emperor from 1605, which is in the collection of Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. By this time, Rudolf's brother Matthias had already been elected head of the House of Habsburg and also ruler of Hungary, Austria and Moravia, with Rudolf holding on to only the Bohemian crown and the rather empty title of Holy Roman Emperor. He appears melancholy and fatigued but at the same time seems to be self-satisfied, as if possessing some secret knowledge.

Portrait of a Girl (Maria Maximiliana von Aachen) from 1612 is a standout. The picture of the painter's daughter, with her large forehead, slightly crossed eyes and faint smile, is painted with tenderness and is one of his best portraits in the show. When the art collection at Prague Castle was looted by invading Swedish forces in 1648, some of the works were successfully hidden, this painting among them, and it remains part of the Prague Castle Collection to this day.

Aachen's status at court brought him many privileges. Aachen had learned to paint on stone in Italy, and in Prague he had access to an unlimited supply of Bohemian and imported stone. A series of paintings on alabaster grew out of this technique, and in these unusual works, such as The Triumph of Cupid and Bacchus and Perseus and Andromeda, he works with the natural grain of the stone to provide sky, clouds and sea in the pictures. The panels are installed in a glass case to allow the light to maximally come through. Elsewhere in the show is Christ in the Tomb Mourned by Two Angels on black marble, a medium that was popular in Italy at that time as a background for nocturnes.

An altarpiece from the Jesuit Church of St. Michael in Munich, The Raising the Widow's Son of Naim, is a classic example of Mannerism, with characteristic elongated fingers, dramatic hand gestures and strong light falling on Jesus' forehead and right hand, which is held over the boy.

After the passage of four centuries, this show brings back to Prague Castle works painted here for the eccentric Rudolf II by his trusted court artist and confidant, to whom he gave great leeway to express himself. The show is therefore a little like one of Aachen's double portraits, simultaneously offering insight into the artistic tastes of the melancholy Habsburg emperor and also demonstrating the considerable talents and individualistic artistic temperament of Aachen.

Mimi Fronczak Rogers can be reached at
Features@praguepost.com