Bartholomeus Spranger

Bartholomäus Spranger ( born March 21, 1546 Antwerp, † June 27, 1611 in Prague) was a Flemish painter who mostly lived in Prague and worked.

Life

Spranger was one of the most respected painters of his time. Even as a child showed his painting talent, and he learned since his eleventh birthday, among others with Jan Mandyn in Antwerp and Cornelis van Dalem. After completing his education he went to Paris, Lyon. In 1565 he met the then Mecca of painting in Italy, a. He worked in Milan, in Bernardino Gatti in Parma and for Alessandro Farnese in Rome. For this, he participated in the design of the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola.

On the recommendation he was from 1570 to 1572 worked as a painter at the papal Pius V. On his own initiative he painted Passion pictures and a copy of the Last Judgement by Michelangelo. After the death of the Pope, he worked for Roman churches and went - already as an artistic personality - in 1575 on the recommendation of Giovanni Bologna to the court of Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna. After the emperor's death he applied to Emperor Rudolf II, was adopted in 1580 and moved to Prague. Here he made ​​contact with many former names in art, including Adrian de Vries, Hans von Aachen and Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Spranger was not only working for the court, but also received orders from influential people.

1582 married Spranger, went shortly afterwards to Vienna, returned in 1584, and received the 1584 own coat of arms. 1595 we raised him to the peerage. In 1602 he visited as a wealthy man, the Netherlands, where he was celebrated triumphantly. Karel van Mander certified him in his Schilder - Boeck, there had prevailed from the beginning apel metallic grace in his paintings. Back in Prague, he was new, increasingly difficult tasks that he solved with new techniques. The constant change of the artist at the Prague Castle, he learned to know new trends and was enthusiastic about the early Baroque style. The most famous engraver of his time, Hendrick Goltzius, chose many paintings Spranger as templates and was connected to him as a painter stylistically. Spranger mediated together with Frans Floris the Italian Mannerism in northern Europe and was a pioneer of the baroque painting in particular his Flemish compatriot Peter Paul Rubens.

Works

• Self-Portrait ( Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum Gemäldegalerie ) to 1580/1585, 62.5 x 45 cm, oil on canvas
• Hercules and Omphale (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum Gemäldegalerie ), around 1585, 24 x 19 cm
• Epitaph of Prague goldsmith Nikolaus Müller ( Prague, National Museum ), 1600, 240 × 160 cm, oil on canvas
• Angelica and Medor (Munich, Alte Pinakothek ), 1600, 108 x 80 cm, oil on canvas
• The Baptism of Christ (Wroclaw, National Museum, VIII - 2252 ), 1603, 102 × 88 cm, Oil on wood