Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| '''Rudolf II''' ([[July 18]], [[1552]] - [[January 20]], [[1612]], [[Prague]], now in the [[Czech Republic]]) was a statesman and [[art patron]]. He was a member of the [[Habsburg]] family. | '''Rudolf II''' ([[July 18]], [[1552]] - [[January 20]], [[1612]], [[Prague]], now in the [[Czech Republic]]) was a statesman and [[art patron]]. He was a member of the [[Habsburg]] family. | ||
| - | Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the [[Thirty Years' War]]; a great [[patron]] of [[Renaissance art]]; and a devotee of [[occult arts]] and learning which helped seed the [[scientific revolution]]. | + | Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the [[Thirty Years' War]]; a great [[patron]] of [[Renaissance art]]; and a devotee of [[occult arts]] and learning which helped seed the [[scientific revolution]]. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually [[erotic]]. |
| ==Patron of arts== | ==Patron of arts== | ||
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Rudolf II (July 18, 1552 - January 20, 1612, Prague, now in the Czech Republic) was a statesman and art patron. He was a member of the Habsburg family.
Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years' War; a great patron of Renaissance art; and a devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed the scientific revolution. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually erotic.
Patron of arts
Rudolf moved the Habsburg capital from Vienna to Prague in 1583. Rudolf loved collecting paintings, and was often reported to sit and stare in rapture at a new work for hours on end. He spared no expense in acquiring great past masterworks, such as those of Durer and Brueghel. He was also patron to some of the best contemporary artists, who mainly produced new works in the mannerist style, such as Bartholomaus Spranger, Hans Mont, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Hans von Aachen, and Adrian de Vries. Rudolf's galleries were the most impressive in Europe at the time, and the greatest collection of mannerism to this day.
Rudolf's love of collecting went far beyond paintings and sculptures. He commissioned decorative objects of all kinds and in particular mechanical moving devices. Ceremonial swords and musical instruments, clocks, water works, astrolabes, compasses, telescopes and other scientific instruments, were all produced for him by some of the best craftsmen in Europe.
He patronized natural philosophers such as the botanist Charles de l'Ecluse, and both Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler attended his court.
Kunstkammer
He kept a menagerie of exotic animals, botanical gardens, and Europe's most extensive "cabinet of curiosities" (Kunstkammer) incorporating "the three kingdoms of nature and the works of man". It was housed at Prague Castle, where between 1587 and 1605 he built the northern wing to house his growing collections.
By 1597, the collection occupied three rooms of the incomplete northern wing. When building was completed in 1605, the collection was moved to the dedicated Kunstkammer. Naturalia (minerals and gemstones) were arranged in a 37 cabinet display that had three vaulted chambers in front, each about 5.5 meters wide by 3 meters high and 60 meters long, connected to a main chamber 33 meters long. Large uncut gemstones were held in strong boxes.
Rudolph's Kunstkammer was not a typical "cabinet of curiosities" - a haphazard collection of unrelated specimens. Rather, the Rudolfine Kunstkammer was systematically arranged in an encyclopaedic fashion. In addition, Rudolf II employed his polyglot court physician, Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (c. 1550-1632), to curate the collection. De Boodt was an avid mineral collector. He travelled widely on collecting trips to the mining regions of Germany, Bohemia and Silesia, often accompanied by his Bohemian naturalist friend, Thadeus Hayek. Between 1607 and 1611, de Boodt catalogued the Kunstkammer, and in 1609 he published Gemmarum et Lapidum, one of the finest mineralogical treatises of the 17th century.
As was customary at the time, the collection was private, but friends of the Emperor, artists, and professional scholars were allowed to study it. The collection became an invaluable research tool during the flowering of 17th-century European philosophy, the "Age of Reason".
Regrettably, Rudolf's successors did not appreciate the collection and the Kunstkammer gradually fell into disarray. Some 50 years after its establishment, most of the collection was packed into wooden crates and moved to Vienna. The collection remaining at Prague was looted during the last year of the Thirty Years War, by Swedish soldiers who sacked Prague Castle on 26 July 1648. In 1782, the remainder of the collection was sold piecemeal to private parties by Joseph II, who was a lover of the Arts rather than the Sciences. One of the few surviving items from the Kunstkammer is a "fine chair" looted by the Swedes in 1648 and now owned by the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle, UK.
Occult sciences
Astrology and alchemy were mainstream science in Renaissance Prague and Rudolf was a firm devotee of both. His lifelong quest was to find the Philosopher's Stone and Rudolf spared no expense in bringing Europe's best alchemists to court, such as Edward Kelley and John Dee. Rudolf even performed his own experiments in a private alchemy laboratory. When Rudolf was a prince, Nostradamus prepared a horoscope which was dedicated to him as 'Prince and King'.
Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists' Alley on the grounds of Prague Castle a popular visiting place.
