Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)

ANNUAL REPORT • A 2008. ÉV - ZSUZSANNA GILA: Renaissance and Mannerism in the Netherlands

preparatory for engravings. Frederick Sustris' high-quality sheet is a largescale compositional sketch for the altar panel of the Jesuit church in Munich, the Michaelskirche, presumably based on the concept of a Jesuit theologian. Jan Speckaert's two tapestry cartoons on the theme of The Triumph of the Church were conceived in the spirit of the Counter Reformation and its wellproportioned figures making elegant movements bear witness to the Italian influence coming full circle. Another group of works included the landscape drawings connected to the followers of Pieter I Bruegel. Unfortunately, the Budapest museum's collection has no landscape drawings by the artist's own hand and the authorship of the Praying Shepherd is not definite either: the expressive, elaborate head suggests Brueghel's hand but the very sketchy clothing raises doubts about the same. The museum is proud to present three landscape drawings by Jan I Brueghel, the master's son, at the exhibition, both from his early and his late periods. The simple composition of Winter Landscape with Travellers has a strong evocative power of the winter atmosphere, foreshadowing one of the main features of seventeenth-century landscape depiction. The sheet Saint Jerome excels with its special combination of techniques: the figures of the saint and the lion were engraved by Pieter de Jode while the landscape around them was hand drawn by Brueghel. The next exhibition hall housed the works of the Rudolphine artists who were employed in Prague. Around 1600 Emperor Rudolph II invited famous artists to his court, such as Spranger, Paulus van Vianen, Adriaen de Vries and Pieter II Stevens, who became leading masters at his court. Owing to their fresh and intimate approach to nature, unmatched at the time, one of the highlights of the exhibition were those eight landscape drawings that were selected by Teréz Gerszi from the seventeen sheets from Van Vianen's Salzburg sketch book preserved