|
Hans Rottenhammer was a German artist who traveled to Italy around the turn of the seventeenth century. Although trained in Munich under the court painter Hans Donauer, his most formative training arose from studying the grand works of Tintoretto, Veronese and Palma Giovane in Venice, where he spent a lengthy and successful sojourn from 1591-1606, broken only by a brief Roman excursion from 1594-1595. Rottenhammer would later settle back in his native Bavaria, but his style, though German at its core, would remain strongly rooted in Italy, particularly in Venice, until the end of his career.
Rottenhammer's reputation for working in this small format was widespread during his lifetime, but his undeniable talent also found its way, albeit very rarely, onto the large scale format of the present canvas. While Rottenhammer returned to the theme of the Feast of the Gods on a number of occasions, he most often approached it in a much smaller format. The present composition, in fact, can be closely compared to Rottenhammer's celebrated copper of the same subject dated 1600 and now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
|
