Lot 248
Adolf Born (1930 - 2016) RECEPTION BY THE EMPEROR RUDOLF

1986
etching, paper
70,5 x 65 cm (h x w)
sign. lower right: A Born

Starting price

20 000 CZK
| 833 €

Price realized

65 000 CZK
| 2 708 €

price without premium

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In folk fantasy and archaizing stylization, Adolf Born found a form that inspired him. Solid contours, careful hatching and calligraphic elements combine into the rich stylistic range of Born's narrative. Each graphic is a bit of a pun and a mystery - cunning courtiers are perhaps presenting Sirael herself, perhaps another muse to Emperor Rudolph II. on an imaginary Trojan boar full of Turks led by Johannes Kepler. The emperor, completely dazed, doesn't even notice a nudge from Kateřina Stradová. The performance naturally catches the eye of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the master of pictorial secrets, who peers suspiciously from the ground.

Published in: Barnes, P., Malina, J. et al.: Adolf Born. Masaryk University in Brno, 1995. p. 76