Prague Castle Picture Gallery - Temporary Exhibitions
2008 | 2007
Allure and Agony
22. 11. 2007 – 17. 2. 2008
Saint Sebastian by Carlo Saraceni (1579–1620)
Like a miniature story about the depiction of Saint Sebastian in the fine arts, this splendid painting by Carlo Saraceni, a proponent of the Roman school of the Baroque in the early seventeenth century, is the centre of attention in the latest instalment in the “Paintings Up Close” series, which accompanies the Prague Castle Gallery permanent exhibition. The painting, from the Prague Castle art collection, employs the symbolism of Saint Sebastian in a truly untraditional, exceptional way, thus pointing to the surprising range of possible interpretations of the subject in its cultural-historical context.
This is the forth instalment in “The Picture Gallery Up Close,” a series accompanying the permanent exhibition, which presents other ways of approaching works of art, observing changes, large and small, in a motif, both in the form of the depiction of specific subject matter and in meanings and interpretations. From various angles, contemporaneous and contemporary, it brings to life the subject matter, scenes, and figures in works of art, and offers a chance to know them and their “second lives” intensively.
Titian’s Mirror
26. 6. – 23. 9. 2007 prolonged till 23. 10. 2007
Meanings and Motifs in the Painting Young Woman at Her Toilet – Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488 – 1576)
One of the finest works of art on view in the Prague Castle Picture Gallery’s permanent collection has been selected for “close-up” inspection. Apart from a host of accompanying visual material, visitors will have the opportunity to examine one detail of key importance – the mirror reflection that may contribute to a new interpretation of the painting. The combined exhibition project will explore all that may be found “through the looking glass”.
Rudolfine Beauty: Recently Discovered Works by Painters at the Court of Emperor Rudolf II.
10. 4. 2007 - 31. 3. 2008
Author: PhDr. Eliška Fučíková, CSc.
This exhibition is focused on the origins of the Prague Castle collections. Thanks to the generosity of a foreign admirer of Rudolfine art, four works, most probably made for these spaces, have returned for a year’s stay in the milieu originally connected with a great period of the Castle, when it was the imperial residence of Rudolf II.
For the first time since their discovery three paintings and one sculpture from a private collection are being presented by Prague Castle Gallery in a public exhibition. The hitherto unknown, uncatalogued works with subject matter from classical mythology and the Bible were made by important artists at Rudolf’s court: the German painter, diplomat, and buyer of artworks for the imperial collections Hans von Aachen (Cologne 1551/52 - Prague 1615); the Flemish painter and draughtsman Bartholomeus Spranger (Antwerp 1546 - Prague 1611); and the Netherlandish sculptor Adriaen de Vries (The Hague c.1556 - Prague 1626).
Ectasy, Contemplation, Fixation: Three Functions of the Eyes in the Pictorial Tradition
Another little exhibition in the “Pictures Up Close” series, this one illustrates different kinds of gazes, their function, and importance in pictures, as well as “eye play”. In two exceptional examples from the permanent collection of the Prague Castle Gallery – Furini’s Judith with a Sword and Stanzione’s Female Saint – together with a drawing by J. K. Burde from the repository of Prague Castle, we see that the viewer is not the only one doing the looking.