The exhibition opened in the cathedral town of Aachen, where German kings were crowned and from where the artist’s family originally hailed. It then moved to Prague, Von Aachen’s final destination and once the seat of Habsburg imperial power. (It is tempting to think that Rudolf himself enjoyed his painter’s trajectory, that he took pleasure in Von Aachen’s roots in Charlemagne’s residence.) From Prague the exhibition travelled to Vienna where, when the Empire’s capital moved there, most of Von Aachen’s works found their permanent home.
Exhibition of the Year: Hans von Aachen in Vienna, Prague, and Aachen
Bringing together more than a hundred of the artist’s works and displaying the full range of his activities, the exhibition, ably curated by Thomas Fusenig (collaborators in Prague were Eliška Fučíková and director of the Intitute of Art History of ASCI Lubomír Konečný), may have been Hans von Aachen’s unique moment in the sun, a once-in-a-lifetime summation of the versatility of a major master of his time. Von Aachen’s itinerant career made his art itself mobile. The Prague venue of this exhibition juxtaposed two versions of the Carrying of the Cross, both from around 1587, one a demonstration of gestural freedom and Venetian colourism, the other – on copper, finishing work begun by Christoph Schwarz – an early essay in controlled ‘fine painting’ (Dutch fijnschilderie).
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