wMIYERSITY 



brushes ; sometimes too he received from them instruction in 

 their art, for Rudolph himself painted with considerable skill 

 and had the rare faculty of catching the likeness when at 

 work on portraits. History relates that Rudolph's imperial 

 grandfather Charles V., watching Titian at work on a canvas, 

 handed the artist a brush that had fallen to the floor; the 

 eminent painter remonstrated, but his Majesty replied: "A 

 Titian is worthy to be served by an Emperor." 



The riches of the Rudolphine "Kunst-Kammer" were well- 

 nigh priceless ; the archaeologist Jules Caesar Boulenger, who 

 died in 1628, estimated the gold and silver articles, the 

 precious stones and pearls at seventeen millions of gold 

 gulden. After its founder's death it was sadly neglected and 

 became the prey of the nations at war with Bohemia ; the 

 eyes of all Europe were fixed on these treasures, and the final 

 blow of the Thirty Years War was struck with the special 

 object of despoiling them ; the Swedish army attacked the 

 Castle on the Hradschin at the very moment of the con- 

 clusion of the Peace of Westphalia. A Bohemian writer says 

 the perfidy was undertaken with a view to pillage at the 

 suggestion of Oxenstierna ; however this may be, whole ship- 

 loads of precious treasures were sent to Stockholm; the 

 remainder was transferred to Vienna and the other cities of 

 the German Empire, leaving very little in Prague as a 

 souvenir of its former grandeur. 



Rudolph's position as an imperial patron of art has been 

 compared to that of the Medici family in Italy, who by 

 liberal orders encouraged the great creative geniuses of the 

 period, but this is giving the German monarch too great 

 credit, as the artists in Prague were mainly mere copyists 

 and exerted little influence on the progress of art. 



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