Word: rudolfs
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...Habsburg emperor, Rudolf II was exceptionally inept. During his rule, from 1576 to 1612, he was forced to cede Hungary, Moravia, Austria and Bohemia. Yet he had vision of sorts. He was an amateur astronomer, brought Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe to the Hradčany, his imperial castle in Prague, to perfect his stargazing. Rudolf's keen eye carried over into the arts, which he collected with all the magpiety of a Renaissance nobleman worshiping beauty. It was one of the world's greatest collections, but Rudolf could not hold on to it either...
...Hradčany was sacked by the Swedes, who floated bargeloads of art homeward down the Elbe. The Habsburg descendants contributed to the losses. In 1749, Empress Maria Theresa sold off 69 paintings at bargain rates. After the Habsburgs moved their imperial seat to Vienna, they removed Rudolf's collection from Prague. Between 1865 and 1894 alone, Vienna's palaces gained 312 pictures, including Cranachs, Bruegels and Bassanos. The dispersal has gone on until art from Rudolf's Schatzkammer now hangs across the world, from New York's Metropolitan to Leningrad's Hermitage...
Many times, experts have declared that Rudolf II's huge Hradčany palace was thoroughly bare. So did Czech Art Historian Jaromir Neumann, 40-at first. While studying inventories, Neumann found discrepancies suggesting that some old masters might still be lying around. And he found them-coated with dirt and varnish that has taken 22 restorers 2½ years to scour off. Now these 74 noble remnants, mostly from Rudolf II's collection, are on view again, some of them back in the marble-floored stables of Prague's Hradčany (see opposite page...
...Wagnerian productions are mounted either in Cecil B. DeMille rococo or, in recent years, Bayreuth Freudian. Last week, for a change, Munich's National Theater opened a new Tristan und Isolde that dispensed almost entirely with theatrical effects, set the most important scenes in near-darkness. Explained Director Rudolf Hartmann: "I wanted this to be a Tristan in which the main interpretation was left to the music." His concern, which would have delighted Richard Wagner, suited the occasion: the 100th anniversary of Tristan's première-also in Munich...
Pierre will be such luminaries as Pian ists Rudolf Serkin and Eugene Istomin...