Leseprobe

139 Elector Christian II of Saxony Adriaen de Vries The Hague c. 1545–1626 Prague 1603 Bronze; 96×66×41 cm Given as a gift by Emperor Rudolf II in 1607 Inv. no. H4 1/4 The bust was commissioned by Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, where Adriaen de Vries had been appointed court sculptor in 1601. It was made in the same year that the artist created his portrait of the emperor, which in turn was based on the bust of Charles V by Leone Leoni (both today in Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Mu- seum). Leoni’s work represented an innovation in that it depicted the whole upper body of the monarch down to the waist and placed this torso upon a figural base that presents an additional level of meaning. In the portrait of Christian, the bust is cut off at a higher point in order to make clear the difference in rank between emperor and elector, while the base conveys the close ties between the two mon- archs: over the centrally placed Saxon arms crowned with the electoral coronet, two female figures gracefully extend their hands to each other in a friendly gesture as a symbol of concord. Before them lies a sheaf of arrows as an emblem of their united strength, alluding to the fact that a sheaf cannot be broken as easily as a single arrow. Christian wears a medallion, suspended on a ribbon, showing a portrait of Rudolf clasped in the talons of the imperial double-headed eagle. The elector received the bust as a gift during his visit to Prague in 1607. It shows him as a young, beardless man with idealized features that merely hint at his considerable corpulence. The proudly raised head and gaze directed into the far distance imbue the portrait with a heroic character.  |  ckg