At the turn of the 17th century, Roelant Savery (1576–1639) left Haarlem for Prague to become court painter to Emperor Rudolf II. It was there that he encountered the object that would help cement his reputation as a key figure of the Dutch Golden Age: a dodo, probably taxidermised, which he spied in the emperor’s extensive collection of rare animals. Savery’s numerous paintings and drawings of dodos have become among the most immediately recognisable depictions of the long-extinct bird, and it is these that form the centre of ‘Roelant Savery’s Wondrous World’ at the Mauritshuis in The Hague (8 February–20 May). The exhibition also features some of his landscapes; pioneering still lifes; cacophonous, fantastical scenes crammed with flora and fauna; and several of his street figures in Prague – the earliest known contemporary images of European Jews. Find out more from the Mauritshuis’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary
The Dodo and Other Birds (c. 1630), attributed to Roelant Savery. Natural History Museum, London
Sleeping Young Man, Probably Pieter Boddaert (1606–07), Roelant Savery. Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Flower Still Life with Two Lizards (1603), Roelant Savery. Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Unlimited access from just $16 every 3 months
Subscribe to get unlimited and exclusive access to the top art stories, interviews and exhibition reviews.
![Masterpiece [Re]discovery 2022. Photo: Ben Fisher Photography, courtesy of Masterpiece London](http://new-dev.apollo-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/MPL2022_4263.jpg)
The many faces of Mary Magdalene