Humprecht Jan ÄŒernÃn
Humprecht Johann Graf Czernin of Chudenitz ( born February 14, 1628 Choustník, † March 3, 1682 in Prague) was from the noble family of Czernin Chudenitz. He was a diplomat in the service of Emperor Leopold I and has also appeared as an art collector and builder.
Life
1650 gave him his uncle Hermann a position as chamberlain at the court of the Archduke and later Emperor Leopold I. A year later, he inherited this same uncle of the title of count and large estates in Bohemia. In 1652 he married the Italian Maria Diana Hippoliti Gazoldo as a maid of honor to the Empress Eleonora, whom he had met at the Viennese court. Marriage, from the emerged two sons, failed, the couple separated 14 years later and was divorced in 1674.
Leopold transferred his chamberlain soon diplomatic tasks. 1657-58 Humprecht was involved in negotiations prior to Leopold's imperial election, and from 1660 to 1663 he held the office of Minister of the Habsburgs in Venice. He earned including the title of a royal governor, an imperial privy councilor and the Order of the Golden Fleece. But he was not able to permanently establish after his return from Italy at the imperial court.
Humprecht made among contemporaries a reputation as a connoisseur of art and architecture. He worked as a builder on his property in Kosmonosy and Melnik, the Humprecht castle, built at Sobotka for hunting and pleasure palace and began in 1669 with the construction of the Czernin Palace on the Prague Castle. The palace is one of the greatest Baroque buildings in Prague. However, the construction was not completed in his lifetime Count Humprechts. He was originally intended to house the art collection of the Counts, the Humprecht had invested in Venice and then continuously. The collection included in Humprechts death about 750 paintings and had grown to 1733 to over 1100 works. Humprechts heirs sold it gradually and removed them about 1778 altogether. From her an illustrated inventory of the years 1668-1669 is obtained, which is called " Imagines galeriae " and listed a number of already -lost art today.
Literature and sources
- Zdeněk Kalista (ed.): Korespondence Zuzany Černínové z Harasova s jejím synem Humprechtem Janem Černínem z Chudenic. Dopisy z let 1645-1648, Melantrich, Praha 1941 -. Correspondence of Count Humprecht with his mother Zuzana Czernin. With a preface by the editor. (online)
- Zdeněk Kalista: Mládí Humprechta Jana Černína z Chudenic, zrození barokního kavalíra ( The youth Humprecht Johann Czernin of Chudenitz, the birth of Baroque cavalier ), Praha 1932 ( not seen ).
- Petr Mata: Svet české aristokracie ( 1500-1700 ). Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2004, ISBN 80-7106-312-6