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| Bartholomeus Spranger Self-portrait 1585-86 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York mounted a prominent and sizable exhibition in 2014-15 devoted to the work of Mannerist painter Bartholomeus Spranger. Guest curator Sally Metzler produced the impressive catalog: Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague. Spranger's most prominent patron was the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. "Under his new patron – a libertine, alchemy-loving bachelor – Spranger's art would lose the delicacy and piety of his late Roman and Viennese phase. The most prominent themes in art made at the Prague court would be the Ottoman threat to the empire, the promulgation of Habsburg rule, and esoteric eroticism derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Spranger focused initially on erotic mythologies, creating a series that would announce the stylistic and iconographic manifesto of the Prague School. . . . Rudolf kept an engaged eye on his artists, especially Spranger. The Duke von Ozegna, a diplomat in Prague, observed that "Rudolf knew no greater pleasure than to visit with painters and sculptors," and the emperor insisted that Spranger work in Prague Castle so he could watch him paint and draw. Spranger's friend Hans Ulrich Krafft visited the castle in 1584. He described how Spranger led him through a series of rooms, unlocking doors as they went, until they entered Rudolf's private chambers and, finally, the studio where Spranger worked. Waiting inside was not Rudolf but his large white mastiff."
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Hercules, Dejanira, and the Centaur Nessus ca. 1580-82 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Hermaphroditus and the Nymph Salmacis ca. 1581-82 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Glaucus and Scylla 1581-82 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Hermes and Athena ca. 1585 fresco Prague Castle |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Venus and Adonis ca. 1590 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Venus and Adonis ca. 1595-97 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Venus blindfolding Cupid 1597 oil on canvas, mounted on panel Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Venus at the Forge f Vulcan 1607-09 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Vulcan and Maia ca. 1585 oil on copper Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Bacchus and Ceres flee Venus 1590 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Minerva victorious over Ignorance ca, 1591 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Allegory of Justice and Prudence ca. 1599-1600 oil on canvas Louvre, Paris |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Angelica and Medoro ca. 1600 oil on canvas Alte Pinakothek, Munich |