thumb|250px|right| Two Laughing Men (Self-portrait), before 1574

Hans von Aachen (1552 – 4 March 1615) was a German painter who was one of the leading representatives of Northern Mannerism.

Hans von Aachen was a versatile and productive artist who worked in many genres. He was successful as a painter of princely and aristocratic portraits, and further painted religious, mythological and allegorical subjects. Known for his skill in the depiction of nudes, his eroticized mythological scenes were particularly enjoyed by his principal patron, Emperor Rudolf II. These remain the works for which he is best known. He also painted a number of genre paintings of small groups of figures shown from the chest upwards, laughing, often apparently using himself and his wife as models. Von Aachen usually worked on a small scale and many of his works are cabinet paintings on copper.

The life and work of Hans von Aachen bear unique witness to the cultural transfer between North, South and Central Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. After training in the tradition of Netherlandish Renaissance painting the artist moved to Italy in 1574, where he remained for about 14 years, mainly working in Venice. He returned in 1587 to his native Germany, where he took up residence in Munich in Bavaria. His final years were spent in Prague.

Von Aachen went to Rome in 1575. Here he studied the antique sculptures and the works of Italian masters. He became a member of the circle of northern artists active in Rome such as Otto van Veen, Joris Hoefnagel, the brothers Paul and Matthijs Bril, Hans Speckaert and Joseph Heintz the Elder. He was able to secure a commission for a Nativity for the Church of the Gesù, the mother church of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Rome. In Florence in the years 1582–3 he established a reputation for his portraits, which led to commissions from the ruling Medici family. In 1585 he again settled in Venice. He painted several works for Duke William V of Bavaria.

In Munich he came into contact with the Imperial Court in Prague. In 1592 he was appointed official painter of Emperor Rudolf II who resided in Prague. Von Aachen did not need to reside at the court in Prague as his appointment was as a 'Kammermaler von Haus aus' (a court painter from home) who could work from his residence. Rudolf was one of the most important art patrons of his time. He held painting in particular esteem and issued a Letter of Majesty to the Prague Painter's Guild exempting painters from the guild rules, awarding them annual stipends and decreeing that painting should no longer be referred to as a craft but as the 'art of painting'. The special treatment provided to painters and artists generally in Rudolf's Prague turned the city into a major art centre. The large output consisted mainly of mythological paintings with an erotic quality or complex allegories glorifying the Emperor. The Emperor was open to artistic innovation and he presided over a new affected style, full of conceits, which became known as Mannerism. This style stressed sensuality, which was expressed in smoothly modeled, elongated figures arranged in elegant poses, often including a nude woman seen from behind.

thumb|280px|left|Pan and Selene, 1600-1605

Rudolf also relied on von Aachen as an advisor on his art collection and what is usually called a 'diplomat'. His diplomatic duties required him to travel extensively. In 1602 he travelled to Brunswick, Wolfenbüttel, Wittenberg and Dresden, and between 1603 and 1605 to Innsbruck, Venice, Turin, Mantua and Modena. The purpose of these later travels was in part for him to make portraits of potential future consorts of the Emperor. Von Aachen only moved to Prague years later possibly in 1601 or earlier in 1597. Here he received many commissions for mythological and allegorical subjects.

He died in Prague in 1615.

Museums

  • Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, Austria
  • Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany
  • Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary
  • The National Gallery, London

Notes

thumb|Couple with a mirror, self-portrait of the artist with his wife

  • Objects related to Hans von Aachen in the Urus : Techniques and Reception of Graphic Art in Central and Eastern Europe (15th–18th centuries) database