The National Gallery in Prague will display a painting lost for
hundreds of years
THE STORY OF THE BEAUTIFUL LEDA. A RE-DISCOVERED
PAINTING BY JOSEPH HEINTZ THE ELDER
The Riding School Gallery in the Kinský Palace: 2nd October 2015 – 3rd January 2016
After almost 400 years, the well-known long-lost painting Leda and the Swan by the
Rudophine master Joseph Heintz has resurfaced. It will be displayed starting from
October 2 in the Riding School Gallery in the Kinský Palace of the National Gallery in
Prague as part of the exhibition The Story of the Beautiful Leda. One of the three
preparatory drawings, which were the only evidence of existence of Heintz’s artwork
will also be exhibited.
Joseph Heintz the Elder (1564, Basel – 1609, Prague) was a prominent artist and court
painter of Emperor Rudolph II in Prague but he also made a name for himself in Augsburg,
Germany. “When his peak artwork Leda and the Swan was re-discovered, the National
Gallery in Prague, the Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, and the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna, Austria, have agreed to organize three separate small exhibitions
presenting this unique find, the story of the painting and other artworks related to it in terms
of theme,” says Alena Volrábová, Director of the Collection of Prints and Drawings of the
National Gallery in Prague.
Besides the celebrated work by Heintz, the exhibition will also show one of the three
preparatory drawings, which is housed in the National Gallery in Prague. Paintings, prints
and drawings by major masters, especially those with mythological themes, such as Jupiter
and Io, the Judgement of Paris or Abduction of Helen, will also be displayed. Besides the
well-known painting, the exhibition will present the protagonist. “The exhibition consists of
three parts and three thematic lines, namely Joseph Heintz as an imperial court painter, Leda
and the Swan and other loves of Jupiter, and Leda’s children. The artworks on display date
from the 15th to early 17th centuries, exceptionally also the 18th century,” adds Alena
Volrábová.
In the spring, Leda and the Swan was shown to the public at an exhibition in Augsburg,
where Heintz was a burgher and worked as a painter, designer of prints and also architect. In
Vienna, where a large part of collections of Emperor Rudolph II has survived, will hold the
same exhibition in 2016.
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