Hans Rottenhammer, born in Munich, stayed in Italy... Lot 16

Hans Rottenhammer, born in Munich, stayed in Italy from 1591 to 1606. Except for a visit to Rome from 1594–1595, he stayed in Venice. He drew intensively from Venetian painting to develop his own mannerist style. Above all, he created finely painted, elegant, small-format cabinet pictures on copper that glow like jewels. He made a significant contribution to the rise and blossoming of the cabinet painting around 1600. The presented painting is an outstanding representative of this genre. In a bedchamber, servants prepare the bed for Venus and Mars. Venus, as the main character, is lying invitingly on the bed in the centre, Mars undresses on the right at the edge of the picture. On the left edge of the picture, a putto has poured red wine into a glass and is offering it. To the left in the background is a view of the workshop of the volcano, the deceived gate of Venus. The erotic theme of Venus and Mars was very popular around 1600. The dropping of arms by Mars to spend a night with Venus, the goddess of love, was considered an allegory of peace. The composition of the painting corresponds to a few details with white heightened drawing on red-toned paper in the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin (inv.no. Rottenhammer dealt with the subject of Mars and Venus in two other paintings on copper with approximately the same format, one dated 1604 in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (inv.no. SK-A-343), the other in the Bavarian State Painting Collections (inv. No. 1585). The painting presented here combines and varies motifs from these two pictures. The servants correspond with variations to the Amsterdam picture, the lovers to the Munich picture, but there in a reversed composition. An infrared image shows that the putto was painted in the foreground by the painter over the background. The Berlin drawing is therefore to be classified as a replica of the painting presented here. Thomas Fusenig: "This picture shows all the characteristics of Rottenhammer's work and was probably