DOI Heft:
Nr. 3
DOI Artikel: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 Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18940#0088
11. Bartbolomaus Strobel, The Feast ofHerodes, detail, Madrid, Prado (Photo courtesy of Prado)
actions, gaming for himself an ironical nickname of Seeligmacher (blessedmaker). It is not-
eworthy and remarkable how both artists, being Protestants, knew how to act ingeniously
in order to take advatage and merits from the powerful Catholic party, whilst their true sym-
pathies stayed with the reformed side (while studying in Heidelberg in 1619, Opitz was very
much involved in the anti-Habsburg policy, supporting the Calvinist „Winter King" of Bohemia
— Friedrich V von Pfalz). Certainly, their humanistic education which stressed flexibility
might explain such an ambiguous conduct. Both friends sharcd the same attitude and paralle
life-history. When, after the uprising of the Protestant town-folk in Wrocław, which brought
an end to the hated governor Dolina, the situation became dangerous for the two courtiers who
had shown affiliation to the Catholic power, both successively left their beloved city and directed
themselves towards Poland. Here again they soon found a high protection of a Catholic,
if however morę tolerant, sovereign Władysław IV25.
Strobel started to produce dozens of altar paintings with the Virgin and the Saints, com-
missioned from bishops and abbots for Catholic churches and cloisters. These works of art differ
considerably from the artist's earlier oeuvre. Spranger's influence, much less evident, is present
only in a certain monumentality of figures resembling earły representations of feminine saints by
this Rudolfine master26. Strobel spent the rest of his life time as a subject of the Polish king, living
25. In January 1636, during the stay of Władysław IV in Toruń Opitz was introduced to the king and soon after wrote glo-
ryfying poem in his favour Lobgedicht an die Kónigliche Majestat zu Polen und Schwcden (Toruń, 1636) which gaincd him
a function of secretarius iuratus: for the detailed hiography of Opitz, see: Polski Słownik Biograficzny, XXIV, [Osso-
lineum], Wrociaw, 1979, pp. 126—27. B. Strohel received the confirmation of the royal document engagingthe pain-
ter to his services in 1639.
73
actions, gaming for himself an ironical nickname of Seeligmacher (blessedmaker). It is not-
eworthy and remarkable how both artists, being Protestants, knew how to act ingeniously
in order to take advatage and merits from the powerful Catholic party, whilst their true sym-
pathies stayed with the reformed side (while studying in Heidelberg in 1619, Opitz was very
much involved in the anti-Habsburg policy, supporting the Calvinist „Winter King" of Bohemia
— Friedrich V von Pfalz). Certainly, their humanistic education which stressed flexibility
might explain such an ambiguous conduct. Both friends sharcd the same attitude and paralle
life-history. When, after the uprising of the Protestant town-folk in Wrocław, which brought
an end to the hated governor Dolina, the situation became dangerous for the two courtiers who
had shown affiliation to the Catholic power, both successively left their beloved city and directed
themselves towards Poland. Here again they soon found a high protection of a Catholic,
if however morę tolerant, sovereign Władysław IV25.
Strobel started to produce dozens of altar paintings with the Virgin and the Saints, com-
missioned from bishops and abbots for Catholic churches and cloisters. These works of art differ
considerably from the artist's earlier oeuvre. Spranger's influence, much less evident, is present
only in a certain monumentality of figures resembling earły representations of feminine saints by
this Rudolfine master26. Strobel spent the rest of his life time as a subject of the Polish king, living
25. In January 1636, during the stay of Władysław IV in Toruń Opitz was introduced to the king and soon after wrote glo-
ryfying poem in his favour Lobgedicht an die Kónigliche Majestat zu Polen und Schwcden (Toruń, 1636) which gaincd him
a function of secretarius iuratus: for the detailed hiography of Opitz, see: Polski Słownik Biograficzny, XXIV, [Osso-
lineum], Wrociaw, 1979, pp. 126—27. B. Strohel received the confirmation of the royal document engagingthe pain-
ter to his services in 1639.
73