Bartholomeus Spranger Biography
Bartholomeus Spranger (Antwerp 1546 – Prague 1611) was one of the great artists who worked at the imperial courts of Vienna and Prague, and was the progenitor of Dutch Mannerism between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century. He studied under the guidance by J. Mandyn and C. van Dalem. In 1565 he lived in Paris and Milan, where he influenced Lombard Mannerism in its infancy. In 1566 he worked in Parma, studying the works of Correggio and Parmigianino and finally arrived in Rome where he received the protection of Cardinal Farnese and worked as a court painter of Pius V. Thanks to his knowledge of the works of F. Zuccari, Spranger he had a great impact on numerous Roman painters, with his eclectic manner of great and imaginative formal elegance, enlivened by sumptuous and unreal colors (such as in the "Martyrdom of Saint John the Evangelist", preserved in Rome, in the Rosminian College).
After 1575 he worked at the court of Maximilian II and in Vienna (where he created the paintings "Hercules and Omphale", "Salmace and Hermaphrodite" and "Venus and Adonis", all preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum). In 1581 Spranger moved to Prague, to the court of Rudolf II, where he worked as court painter and leader of a group of German, Dutch and Flemish mannerists whose activity was decisive for the formation of international mannerism. Spranger's works have been known throughout Europe thanks to the prints made both by Spranger himself and by H. Goltzius. Spranger also worked in Rome in the circle of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, where he came into contact with the works of Girolamo Muziano, Cornelis Cort and Jan Soens.
