DOI issue:
Nr. 3
DOI article:Benesz, Hanna: Daniel and King Cyrus in front of Baal: a late Rudolfine and late Humanist painting by Bartholomäus Strobel from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18940#0082
6. Bartholomaus Strobel, The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen, Poznań, Muzeum Narodowe (Photo
Poznań, Muzeum Narodowe)
In this respect, of the veiled mystery, StrobeI's paintings approach Rudolfine allegories,
in which the ąualities of wit, ornamentation and invention play an important role15. As Th.
DaCosta Kaufman said: „The abstruse and complicated character of much overtly allegorical
Rudolfine painting, ineluding images which do not immediately seem to glorify Rudolf, can be
related to this intellectual context. Many Rudolfine allegories are indeed so difficult to unravel
that there is as yet no scholarly consensus as to their correct interpretation"16, though one is
positive that they always seem to present a moralizing message.
Such allegories, together with other subjects containing some na.rrative element, whether
religious, biblical mythological or historical, constituted the painting of the historia which
was given the highest rank in Leon Battista AlbertFs hierarchy of subjects, derived from the
15. Rudolfine allegories are treated vastly iji DaCosta Kaufmann, op. ci:., pp. 56—57.
16. DaCosta Kaufmann, op. cii., p. 58.
67
Poznań, Muzeum Narodowe)
In this respect, of the veiled mystery, StrobeI's paintings approach Rudolfine allegories,
in which the ąualities of wit, ornamentation and invention play an important role15. As Th.
DaCosta Kaufman said: „The abstruse and complicated character of much overtly allegorical
Rudolfine painting, ineluding images which do not immediately seem to glorify Rudolf, can be
related to this intellectual context. Many Rudolfine allegories are indeed so difficult to unravel
that there is as yet no scholarly consensus as to their correct interpretation"16, though one is
positive that they always seem to present a moralizing message.
Such allegories, together with other subjects containing some na.rrative element, whether
religious, biblical mythological or historical, constituted the painting of the historia which
was given the highest rank in Leon Battista AlbertFs hierarchy of subjects, derived from the
15. Rudolfine allegories are treated vastly iji DaCosta Kaufmann, op. ci:., pp. 56—57.
16. DaCosta Kaufmann, op. cii., p. 58.
67