Bartholomeus Spranger's Wild, Weird and Voluptuous Art at the Met

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Philip Kennicott

“The Lamentation of Christ.” Credit ayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

WASHINGTON, DC---“Bartholomeus Spranger: Splendor and Eroticism in Imperial Prague” is billed as the first major exhibition devoted to Spranger, who not only served Rudolf from the early 1580s until the painter’s death in 1611, but also Rudolf’s father, the emperor Maximilian II; Pope Pius V; and one of the greatest arts patrons of any age, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Born in Antwerp, Spranger studied with Flemish landscape painters before heading south, by way of Paris and Milan, to Rome, where he was deeply influenced by the prevailing Mannerist painters of the day. But it was the call to serve the Habsburgs, and particularly the febrile court of Rudolf, that allowed Spranger to produce the sensual, fleshy, sexually charged works for which he is most famous. [link]