Couple with Mirror
by AACHEN, Hans von, Copperplate, 25 x 20 cm
At the end of the 16th century the court of Emperor Rudolph II in Prague was one of the most important art and cultural centre of Europe. The Emperor gathered together important artists: painters, sculptors, goldsmiths, who developed a characteristic style as important as that of the Fontainebleau school flowered at the same period in France. One component of the Rudolphean style was the painting of the Flemish Spranger, another the German Hans von Aachen and the third the Swiss Joseph Heintz.
Aachen studied in Italy, he spent there 14 years and was known as a portraitist. He went to Munich and worked for the Bavarian Prince. He moved to Prague in 1592 and became court painter at the court of Rudolph II.
In addition to mythological subjects he painted realistic genre pictures with two-three figures.