Written in 1622, Marcello Sacchetti’s travelogue provides a detailed description of Prague Castle as it was ten years after the death of Emperor Rudolph II. Sacchetti writes about the castle complex and its rich art collections, highlighting particularly interesting artefacts such as Cornelius Drebbel’s perpetuum mobile and Tycho Brahe’s astronomical instruments. He also draws attention to the picture gallery, mentioning Emperor Ferdinand II’s intention to destroy erotic works.

This article provides the first close reading of Bartholomäus Spranger's Venus, Mars and Cupid in the Alte Galerie in Graz. It analyzes not only the ingeniously constructed composition, but also the artist's working method and his imitation behavior. In this way, one of Spranger's major works from the 1590s appears in a new light.

The study presents for the first time new findings on the Mannerist decoration of the Bratislava Castle from 1563–1565, now known from the small space uncovered in 1962. It also attempts to identify the role of the court painter Giulio Licinio (1527–1591) as the main contract holder for the decoration of the castle chapel, as well as the particular roles of three other specialists invited directly from Italy, namely Plinio Scarpelli, Jacopo Pastorini and Antonio Ponzano. Perhaps the most interesting and exciting research focus on contemporary aquatilia as a completely new phenomenon in the Italian milieu in the 1540s and its grasp through the unique vertical stripes with aquatic animals in the so-called “bay window” of the Bratislava Castle is relevant at this moment in time.

This essay deals with a famous, yet insufficiently studied object from the Rudolfine Kunstkammer: a goblet carved from rhinoceros horn, adorned with the tusks of a warthog and life casts which has been attributed to the goldsmith Nikolaus Pfaff. Besides a detailed analysis of the goblet’s history, iconography and materiality, a new contextualization of the object within contemporary discourses on medicine and natural magic will be provided which will also shed light on the nature of Rudolf ’s II collecting and commissioning artworks.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna houses a large astronomical wooden cased clock inspired by the Prague Astronomical Clock, made for Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria in 1572. Archival sources confirm that this clock can be attributed to clockmaker Pavel Frejlich from Litomyšl. The previous attributions to Jan Táborský of Klokotská Hora have been ruled out due to his death in January 1572 and his non-clockmaker background. This clock also provides insights into elements used at the time of its creation on the Prague Astronomical Clock, such as the crank-rocker mechanism for the oscillation of the Bohemian hours’ chapter ring and the auxiliary ring with moon phases, neither of which have been preserved to this day.

The Vision of St. Ignatius at La Storta in Prague‘s Church of St. Saviour, newly attributed to Hans Georg Hering, reveals stylistic continuity with Rudolfine painting in post-1620 Prague. A comparison of the painting with Hering‘s versions in Olomouc and Hradec Králové reveals compositional influences from prints and Jesuit iconography and demonstrates Hering’s impact on religious painting in the service of post-White Mountain recatholization.

In 1593, Emperor Rudolf II decided to build a new armoury and foundry in the northern fortification of Prague Castle. In 1601, a new foundryman Martin Hilliger was hired to cast models for sculptures by Adrian de Vries. With the emperor’s permission, both masters could work for other patrons, such as Karl, Prince of Liechtenstein, or the Saxon court. After Rudolf II’s death, de Vries remained in imperial service, working at Prague Castle on models for statues commissioned by King Christian IV of Denmark and others. His death ended statue casting at the Castle. The 1637–1638 inventory shows the foundry was temporarily used to store objects collected and sealed there from other parts of the Castle. Besides foundry materials and tools, the inventory lists paintings, books, statues, parts of fountains, and other surprising items. The full 1638 inventory is attached at the article’s end.

The book of alchemical emblems Atalanta fugiens by the physician Michael Maier (1569–1622) is an important example of alchemical iconography at its height. This study explores the influences that went into this book, namely the older tradition of pictorial poems from German alchemical literature and the influences that Maier may have picked up during his time at the court of Emperor Rudolf II.