(Munich 1564–1625 Augsburg)
Venus Reclining and Cupid, monogrammed and dated at lower right HR F. 16.., Au..., oil on canvas, 74 x 90 cm, framed

Provenance: French Private Collection.

Exhibited: Weserrenaissance-Museum, Lemgo, 1 Aug. – 30 Sept. 2010, next to the later replica from the Dresden Picture Gallery.

We are grateful to Dr. Hans Borggrefe, Deputy Director of the Weserrenaissance-Museum, Lemgo, for identifying the present painting as an important work by Rottenhammer. Dr. Borggrefe has recognized it as the lost prototype of the later replica in the Dresden Picture Gallery (now on permanent loan to the museum in Lemgo). We thank Professor Ugo Ruggeri for also endorsing the authenticity of the present work (certificate July 2010).

In identifying this painting, Ugo Ruggeri has succeeded in adding an important composition dating from the artist’s maturity to Rottenhammer’s oeuvre. The present Venus excellently illustrates Rottenhammer’s characteristic style, a fusion between the Northern European traditions of Germano-Flemish Mannerism and Venetian painting. As to the delicacy of its execution, the work outstrips an unsigned painting in the Dresden Picture Gallery of similar dimensions and subject matter. In 1582, Hans Rottenhammer started his six-year apprenticeship in the Munich workshop of Hans Donauer and subsequently went to Venice, where Venetian art was to have the most formative impact on his oeuvre. In 1589 he is recorded as having been in Treviso and in 1591 he is first mentioned in Venice, where he completed his studies by copying the works of Titian and Tintoretto before enrolling at Federico Zuccari’s Academia di San Luca in Rome. There he joined the colony of northern and Flemish artists and began his collaboration with Paul Bril and Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Hans Borggrefe points out that in the present painting the landscape background is by the hand of Paul Bril. Rottenhammer took to painting small cabinet pictures, most of which were done on copper, frequently in collaboration with other artists. These works suited the taste of wealthy travellers and aided the artist’s popularity in Europe. In 1596 the artist returned to Venice, where he continued to produce his popular cabinet paintings with the support of a large workshop. For prominent patrons, Rottenhammer also painted more sizable paintings like the present picture, relying on the large compositions of Tintoretto and Veronese. Soon Rottenhammer numbered among the most renowned painters in Venice. Besides his friendship with Palma il Giovane he maintained a busy correspondence with a number of European princes. For Emperor Rudolf II, he even worked as an agent, assisting him in the acquisition of important works of art. From Venice he also supplied his future employer, the Count of Schaumburg-Lippe, as well as the Duke of Mantua.

The present painting dates from Rottenhammer’s artistic acme. When it is compared to other works from that period, it reveals a strong Venetian influence, particularly that of Veronese, as well as that of his friend, Palma il Giovane. Several stylistic peculiarities also recur in Rottenhammer’s later works; for example, the Four Elements in the ceiling of the Golden Hall in Bückeburg Castle bear resemblances to the present Venus. By tackling the motif of the reclining Venus and the prankish Cupid, Rottenhammer devoted himself to a canonical theme that had belonged to the standard repertory of the great Venetian painters at least since Giorgione and Titian and is still considered a typically Venetian subject. The artist repeated the composition, which was one of his early successes, in Augsburg in 1620. Before the discovery of the present composition, it had been the only version known. It belongs to the Dresden Picture Gallery and is on permanent loan to the Weserrenaissance-Museum, Lemgo. The two ‘Venuses’ were first shown side by side on the occasion of an exhibition in the summer of 2010. This presentation revealed the powerful innovation and refined treatment of colour of Rottenhamer’s first version of the composition.

Provenance: French Private Collection. Exhibited: Weserrenaissance-Museum, Lemgo, 1 Aug. – 30 Sept. 2010, next to the later replica from the Dresden Picture Gallery. We are grateful to Dr. Hans Borggrefe, Deputy Director of the Weserrenaissance-Museum,