The reprise of the first retrospective exhibition of painter Hans Rottenhammer's work, which was held at the Weserrenaissance-Museum Schloss Brake in Lemgo, Germany from August to November, offers a representative selection of the best-known items that were displayed in Germany completed with several works from the collections of the National Gallery in Prague and the Silesian Land Museum in Opava. Autonomous section of the exhibition is represented by a selection of drawings by Hans Rottenhammer and prints made after his works from the collections of the National Gallery in Prague. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in German. For Prague reprise it is supplemented by a translation of the leading article and selected catalogue entries.

Hans Rottenhammer made a name for himself especially as a figural painter and painter of cabinet paintings on copper, which were popular in Rome and Venice as well as Antwerp, Augsburg and Prague. While in Rome between spring 1594 and autumn 1595, Rottenhammer began to cooperate with Paul Bril (1554-1626) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). Brueghel and Bril engaged in landscape painting and Rottenhammer produced the figural staffage for their paintings. As early as 1595, however, each went his own way - Bril stayed in Rome, Brueghel left for Antwerp and Rottenhammer went to Venice where he led a successful painting workshop for more than a decade. Interest in their paintings persisted, and they cooperated from a distance by sending copper plates with paintings in process to one another. Rottenhammer returned to Augsburg in 1606; failing eyesight and alcohol later brought about his personal decline, which had a negative impact on his work and forced him to suspend it temporarily. He spent the last years of his life in a poorhouse.

In the Netherlands, Rottenhammer's work long remained the standard for good-quality cabinet painting. Later generations forgot his importance to European art soon after his death. From the 19th century, he was seen as a German painter working in Italy.

Collectors who sought out Rottenhammer's artworks included Emperor Rudolf II and Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Rottenhammer also worked as an art agent for Rudolf II - among others, he mediated the purchase of the Feast of the Rose Garlands by Albrecht Dürer, one of the chefs-d'oeuvre of the National Gallery in Prague. After returning to Germany, Rottenhammer worked for Count Ernst von Schaumburg, Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and the Fugger banking family.

The focus of this exhibition form works on loan from the foreign museums. Put together, they offer an exceptional opportunity for deeper understanding of the international character of Rottenhammer´s oeuvre.

The exhibition is held under the auspices of Karel Schwarzenberg, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and Frank Walter Steinmeier, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany with the financial support of the Czech-German Fund for the Future.