Hans von Aachen (Cologne, 1552 – Prague, 4 March 1615), Nativity

Hans von Aachen (Cologne, 1552 – Prague, 4 March 1615)

Nativity

Oil on canvas, 37 x 29 cm

With frame, 63 x 50 cm

Born into a noble and prestigious family from the city of Aachen (in German Aachen, hence the name), he was a pupil of the Flemish Georg Jerrigh. He trained under the influence of the work of Bartolomeus Spranger, before continuing his studies in 1574 in Italy, in Florence, where he painted several portraits, in Rome and perhaps also in Venice, since he seems to have also assimilated the lesson of Tintoretto: it is precisely in this presumed Venetian formative experience that the roots of his Mannerism should lie. Hans von Aachen returned to Germany in 1588 and gained a good reputation as a portraitist with clients in Cologne, the ducal house of Wittelsbach in Munich and the Fugger banking family in Augsburg. In 1592 he painted the portrait of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague and became painter of the imperial court, also carrying out diplomatic tasks. In 1596 he married the daughter of the great Flemish musician Orlando di Lasso, who also worked at the Rudolphine court, and from 1601 he permanently resided in Prague, where he died in 1615.

The themes most treated by the artist in his production are the religious, the mythological and the allegorical; His style combines Florentine mannerism with warm Venetian colours, together with Flemish naturalism.

The painting in question is one of the various versions of the nativity theme by von Aachen: the prototype of the painting coincides with the one executed by the artist from Aachen for Rudolf II in 1591 and preserved at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (oil on copper, 24x19 cm). There are various other versions of the painting by the artist, among which the one located at the high altar of the church of Stitnik and the one currently exhibited at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge stand out. The enormous visual success of the painting is testified by the fact that, in 1593, only two years after its execution, Sadeler reproduced it in one of his famous engravings.