Metropolitan Museum Spotlights Bartholomeus Spranger's 16th-Century Holy and Erotic Art

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Carol Vogel

“Fama” (1605), a pen-and-ink drawing by the Flemish artist Bartholomeus Spranger, whose
works will be shown at the Met. Credit Hartung & Hartung Auctioneers Collection

NEW YORK---The Flemish artist Bartholomeus Spranger was something of a celebrity in late-16th-century Europe. He secured the patronage of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese of Italy and Pope Pius V; was the court painter to Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna and served Emperor Rudolf II of Austria. “This is an artist whose due is long past,” said Sally Metzler, who is writing Spranger’s catalog raisonné and is guest curator of the exhibition “Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague,” which opens on Nov. 4 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The show will span the artist’s career, from the paintings he created in Italy, starting with “The Holy Family,” a miniature on copper from the Galleria Palatina in Florence. [link]