No matter how I try, I am not able to change my mind about labeling Spranger’s art. Yes, he did a number of religious paintings, but as a number of reviewers of last year’s exhibition of his art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art have written, he was a painter of erotica. Gerald Stiebel comments on one devotional image in his blog, “The Lamentation of Christ,” a beautifully rendered small-format painting on copper (circa 6×4″) as follows: “One of the pictures that caught her [Sally Metzler’s] eye took me by surprise in the exhibition. It is a very small picture without wall power in the usual sense. But when you get close to this small copper representing “The Lamentation of Christ” that Spranger painted for Maximilian in 1576 it jumps out at you as if it were 3 dimensional. Unfortunately, it does not come off as such in an illustration but take my word for it. It is luminous and in a non-sexual way it is a very sensuous image. Spranger is a great Mannerist artist and the twisted figure of Christ is certainly a fine example of the style.”
The New York Times chose to use a different painting to advertise the exhibit. There must have been a good reason for the choice. “Jupiter and Antiope” from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna needs no introduction or description. I can quote Ovid and other ancients writers under the pretext of giving this painting a literary veil, but it would be absurd. In this excerpt from Mr. Stiebel’s blog, he quotes another writer summarizing Spranger’s art in succinct, clear terms: “I want to share with you Ariella Budick’s introduction in the Financial Times to her review of the Spranger show, “Imagine a 16th-century version of an adult website, with lithe bodies tangled in impossibly acrobatic poses, lissome limbs, lustrous flesh, supple skin, all elaborately arranged in dances of erotic abandon.”
Need I add more about Spranger? He was a well-trained artist and knew how to cater to his patron’s taste. As for Rudolf II Habsburg, that is another story for another time! For now, read Eve Hahn’s New York Times review of the big exhibition in Minneapolis here.