four stout and trusty men, thus reaching Prague without 

 damage. 



These magnificent paintings were not arranged according 

 to any system, the names of the artists were seldom attached, 

 though some bore the name of the places where they had 

 been obtained. They were hung on the walls without 

 reference to light, convenience of sight, age or school of 

 painting; when one hall or corridor was filled with curio- 

 sities and paintings the adjoining one was opened and the 

 heterogeneous collections stored therein until it in turn 

 became crowded. In justice to Strada, Johann von Achen 

 and other artists, it must be said that this lack of system 

 was due chiefly to the will of the autocratic Emperor who 

 regarded the treasures as his personal property, to be kept 

 strictly private and not designed to promote the study of 

 art. Rudolph had a large number of artists engaged in 

 decorating the palace and in painting easel pictures, but they 

 were of mediocre ability ; they profited little by contact with 

 the masterpieces with which they became acquainted and 

 they left no evidence of superior skill. Indeed some of them 

 were guilty of the atrocity of whitewashing over the superb 

 ancient frescoes on the walls of the Castle of Karlstein, and 

 painting on the new surface crude scenes of Biblical history 

 in semi-barbarous style; a life-size figure of the Virgin was 

 beautified (?) by one of the court artists by adding a brilliant 

 sunbeam which covered a portion of the figure in a ridiculous 

 fashion as with a fringed scarf. 



The oldest and one of the most eminent of the royal 

 artists was Bartholomew Spranger, born in the Netherlands 

 and trained in Italy. Being recommended to Maximilian in 

 1575, he executed for his Majesty, and afterwards for Rudolph, 

 important decorative works on the palace walls; the latter 

 monarch enobled Spranger who took the cognomen "van den 



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