16. - 17. století
Adrien de Vries
the court sculptor for Emperor Rudolph II
Significant photo
Fotogalerie
Info text
Originally, Adrien de Vries came from the Netherlands. From 1601 onwards, he worked at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague where he also eventually died in 1626. He is buried in the Church of St. Tomas on Malá Strana. He was a representative of Mannerism which he favored from the time he studied in Florence. He worked as the chief sculptor in decorating Prague Castle at the court of Emperor Rudolf II. He emphasized
the residential portion and decorated the palaces of various nobles. His very famous grouping of bronze statues sits in the Wallenstein Garden, while the garden’s eastern portion contains the Hercules well – a sculpture depicting gods of antiquity which he created in the 1720s. Currently, the original sculptures are located in Drottningholm, Sweden where they were brought after the Swedish army attacked Prague in 1648.
