Prague Castle Picture Gallery - The Picture Gallery History
The oldest paintings hail from the time of Rudolf II, whereby some of these works actually remained at Prague Castle ever since the time of Rudolf II, whereas others were returned to the Castle in the mid 17th century, in the 18th or the 19th centuries either from Vienna or in a round-about way, for instance, via England and Antwerp. We can, however, now say in all certainty that the oldest preserved inventory very likely hails from 1660. In 1762 the independent gallery at Prague Castle was abolished. It was only after the establishment of the Czech Republic that there was a revival of the gallery thanks to the means provided by the Masaryk Fund, which concentrated in particular on purchasing paintings of the Czech Baroque period and those of the 19th century. Following several years of art-historians’ research and restoration work a new Prague Castle Picture Gallery was established in 1965, containing the paintings which used to be a part of the historic Castle collection as well as new acquisitions. When the Picture Gallery was re-opened in 1997 the original collection was enhanced by later categorized discoveries and by new purchases. In 2001 the Prague Castle Administration bought two pictures which were painted in the Emperor’s residence in time of Rudolf II and most likely comprised part of his collection. So after a few centuries they have made a full circle and have arrived back to where they were created – at Prague Castle. In a similar way the collection of the Gallery artefacts has been enriched by a statue of Martha and Venus, the work of sculptor Hans Mont who lived in Rudolf’s days. The total number of works of art in the Prague Castle Picture Gallery by masters present at Rudolf II Court is none too large. Nevertheless the quality of these paintings is significant and they have made a noteworthy contribution to the collection of new acquisitions.