Hans von Aachen, Two Laughing Young Boys (Self-Portrait), before 1574 Oil on oak panel. Archbishopric of Olomouc – Olomouc Museum of Art.
One of the most respected Dutch painters, whose works are displayed in major museums and galleries worldwide, Karel van Mander (1548–1606) is also known as the "Dutch Vasari." His Het Schilder-Boeck (The Book of Painting), first published in 1604, continues to provide art historians and the general public with essential information about the lives and works of his predecessors and contemporaries.
Following the narrative of van Mander's publication, the exhibition presents masterpieces of the Dutch Renaissance by Rogier van der Weyden, Quentin Massijs, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Floris, and Bartholomeus Spranger, on loan from leading European museums. Echoing van Mander's curiosity, the selected paintings, drawings, prints, and books illuminate the intellectual culture of early modern Europe and explore collecting practices, literature, and the cultural context of the period.
The exhibition is accompanied by the first Czech translation of the fourth book of the Het Schilder-Boeck, dedicated to Dutch and German painters, translated by Zuzana Henešová and Ivana Svobodová.
