The Picture Gallery of Prague Castle
The collection of paintings at Prague Castle contains about four hundred paintings, drawings and graphic sheets of various
ages and qualities.
The historical development of the present collection was a long and complicated process. Unfortunately, the legendary
collection of paintings of Rudolph II has not been preserved. A small part of it was taken away to Vienna during the Thirty
Years's War and the greater part was stolen by the Swedes in 1648. The picture gallery was later renewed by Ferdinand III
and particularly by his brother, Archduke Leopold Vilém, in the 17th century. From the Twenties of the 18th century the
collection of paintings was thinned out as the result of the removal of works to Vienna, later by sales to Saxony and the
Josephian auction - and only in a few cases was the loss replaced with new additions. The paintings which were moved from
the Picture Gallery to various rooms of the Castle to serve as decoration remained forgotten. It was not until the early Sixties
of the present century that they were identified and evaluated in the course of research. The title of "Picture Gallery of Prague
Castle" was restored as the name for the room reconstructed for the gallery installation of the most valuable and important
pictures of the Castle collection. This new Picture Gallery was open in 1965. Since 1991 the Picture Gallery was
reconstructed again. The first exhibition in the renovated Picture Gallery is one part of the "Rudolph II and Prague" project.
From May 1998 the permanent exhibition was installed here.
Among the paintings historically connected with the old Picture Gallery of Prague Castle include outstanding works by
world-renowned artists Regarded as the most valuable are Tizian's Toilet of a Young Lady, Tintoretto's Flagellation of Christ
or Rubens's The Assembly of the Olympic Gods. Of great value, however, are also the paintings by Hans von Aachen,
Domenico Fetti, Bartolomeo Spranger, Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Bassano and others.
Foto:
Jiri Kopriva