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Lot Essay
Painter, draughtsman, etcher and sculptor, Bartholomäus Spranger was, alongside Hans von Aachen and Joseph Heintz, one of the most important artists at the Prague court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, where he was made "painter by royal appointment" in 1584. Certainly, it was Spranger who served the highly cultivated emperor longest, and his work, elegantly sensual and yet intellectual, combines a northern realism with a Roman brand of Mannerism that is highly distinctive of the Rudolfine court. Karel van Mander, in his life of Spranger, records how the Emperor often came to watch the painter at work, and until 1601 Spranger was forbidden from receiving private commissions.
The present painting can be dated to the 1580s. It was in this decade that Spranger's work was being widely engraved and became one of the primary catalysts for the development of Mannerism in Northern Europe. Of the several printmakers who worked from Spranger's compositions, the most famous and accomplished was Hendrick Goltzius, who had been introduced to the artist's work by Karel van Mander in Haarlem in 1583. Spranger's influence on Goltzius was decisive, and between 1585 and his departure for Italy in 1590, he produced seven engravings based directly on drawings supplied by Spranger. Certainly, Goltzius's famous series, The Roman Heroes, executed circa 1586, and dedicated to Rudolph II, shows remarkable similarities to Spranger's Mars (see for example the engraving of Caius Muscius Scaevola, in which Scaevola and Mars wear almost identical helmets; fig. 1). Like Spranger's Mars, Goltzius's series focuses on the heroes themselves, and in particular on their physiques. In both Spranger's painting and Goltzius's prints, each protagonist is sparsely dressed to reveal the form of his powerful body, and placed right at the front of the picture plane, making the emphasis in each work one of movement and an astonishingly three-dimensional monumentality.
The present painting can be dated to the 1580s. It was in this decade that Spranger's work was being widely engraved and became one of the primary catalysts for the development of Mannerism in Northern Europe. Of the several printmakers who worked from Spranger's compositions, the most famous and accomplished was Hendrick Goltzius, who had been introduced to the artist's work by Karel van Mander in Haarlem in 1583. Spranger's influence on Goltzius was decisive, and between 1585 and his departure for Italy in 1590, he produced seven engravings based directly on drawings supplied by Spranger. Certainly, Goltzius's famous series, The Roman Heroes, executed circa 1586, and dedicated to Rudolph II, shows remarkable similarities to Spranger's Mars (see for example the engraving of Caius Muscius Scaevola, in which Scaevola and Mars wear almost identical helmets; fig. 1). Like Spranger's Mars, Goltzius's series focuses on the heroes themselves, and in particular on their physiques. In both Spranger's painting and Goltzius's prints, each protagonist is sparsely dressed to reveal the form of his powerful body, and placed right at the front of the picture plane, making the emphasis in each work one of movement and an astonishingly three-dimensional monumentality.