Abstrakt
The article Giovanni Contarini: un pittore misterioso alla corte di Rodolfo II published in an Italian journal for Art History Arte e Documento deals with the topic of Venetian painter Giovanni Contarini, who was expected to be a court painter of Rudolf II in Prague at the end of the 16th century. This idea was supported by the presence of his painting with the topic The Fall of the Reign of Saturn in the Picture gallery of Prague castle and by some similarities with a drawing with the mythological topic of the Rudolfine court painter Joseph Heintz the Elder.
The author of this article examined the above-mentioned painting in connection with the oeuvre of the Venetian painter and with the archival documents known about painter's life. Due to the information from archival sources and the comparison of the artistic expression the author of the article came to conclusion, that almost confidently Giovanni Contarini could not be a court painter active in Prague and that his painting kept in Prague Castle picture gallery is not derived from the drawing of Joseph Heintz the Elder, but is fully dependent on Venetian painting tradition.