426 ZPRÁVY REPORTS UMĚNÍ  ART       5      LXIV       2016 ALICE FORNASIERO — CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE, CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL FACULTY, ART HISTORY DEPARTMENT he Study Stay of Christian Schröder in Italy Recent studies have underlined the importance of the role performed by the painter Christian Schröder in the artistic training of Petr Brandl, who was his pupil between 1683 and 1687 (or 1688). 1 Schröder, as Emperor’s court painter and inspector of the Prague Castle Gallery, provided Brandl with free access to the Castle collections, where the young pupil could be inspired by the diferent schools of painting, compensating for a study trip abroad that he would never make. 2 Schröder himself was able to train for three years in Italy, thanks to the generous support of his irst patron, Count Jan Jiří Jáchym Slavata who paid accommodation and expenses for his stay. 3 According to the leter Schröder wrote on 17 January 1684, to ask for the vacant position of inspector of the Prague Castle Gallery ater the death of Filip Mazanec (1637–1684), he spent several years in Rome and Venice where he studied with diferent famous masters and received his qualiication: ‘Und ich nun mich von meiner Jugend auf dieser Kunst nicht allein … apliciret, soundern nachdeme Ihre Hochgrf Excellenz Herr Graf Slawata mir die Gnad getan und auf dero Unkosten in Wälschland raisen lassen, so wohl zu Rom als Venedig bei verschiedenen berühmten Kunstmahlern durch etliche Jahrlang dergestalten qualiicit gemacht habe.’ 4 he leter represents a valid proof of Schröder’s stay in Italy, which is conirmed by the information contained in a series of leters preserved in the archive of the Castle of Jindřichův Hradec, property of Count Slavata. 5 he leters, writen in French, were sent to Count Slavata by his brother, the Carmelite Karel Felix Slavata, from Rome, where he lived from 1662. hey contain references to Schröder’s activity and progress while, under Karel Felix Slavata’s protection, the painter lived in Rome. According to the leter Karel Felix Slavata wrote on November 27, 1677, Schröder arrived in Rome on November 25 of the same year: ‘Hier vostre peintre, qui arriva avanthier, fut auprès de moy … vous me le recommandé’. 6 On his arrival in Rome, Schröder was entrusted to a Bohemian painter, native of Witingau (the German name for Třeboň), who had to ind him accommodation in the neighbourhood of Chiesa Nuova, well-lit and with every comfort for his profession. 7 Karel Felix Slavata writes: ‘je l’ay addresé à un Peintre Bohemois fort honnete, et bien savant, qui est naturel de Witingau’ and ‘je luy ay donné la commision, qui luy donné une chambre bien commode et de bonne lumiere dont à propos pour sa Profession, il m’a promis de le vouloir faire en son voisinage, qui est tout près de Chiesa nuova.’ he same painter ‘le conduirà dans les academies et luy fera voir toutes les belles peintures et sculptures pour n’en avoir selon son plaisir’. 8 In a leter dated 19 February 1678, Karel Felix Slavata wrote to his brother that: ‘vostre peintre, … le soir il s’en va dans une academie pour se plus perfectionner dans le dessein’. 9 At the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome there is an undated register with names of artists who entered the academy, 10 but the name of Christian Schröder, or a variation of it, does not appear. 11 However, the word ‘academie’ does not have to be restricted to the Academy of Saint Luke. In Rome, the teaching of drawing was not the prerogative of the oicial Academy alone. From the sixteenth century its practice was also promoted by private groups or companies of artists who gather in the workshop or the house of a renowned master or at the palace of a noble patron. hese meetings were also deined ‘accademie di disegno’ or ‘accademie del nudo’, clear allusion to the presence of the nude model as key element of the training. 12 he fact that in the leter Karel Felix Slavata speciied that Schröder practiced drawing in the evening, might conirm that he was referring to a private academy where — in contrast to the Academy of Saint Luke — the meetings usually took place in the evening. 13 A further proof that Schröder atended a private academy is the leter dated 17 December 1678, where Karel Felix Slavata writes that he recommended Schröder to the painter Ciro Ferri: ‘Je fus l’autre jour auprès de Ciro Ferri un des premiers Peinteurs de cete ville, je lui recomanday vostre Christian’. 14 Between 1673 and 1686 Ciro Ferri (1633–1689) 15 was involved in the teaching of drawing and painting in the Accademia Fiorentina co-directed with Ercole Ferrata and promoted by Cosimo III at Palazzo Madama in Rome. 16 he Academy was mainly dedicated to the Florentine artists who came to Rome to accomplish their artistic training. Probably Schröder could not be one of Ciro Ferri’s pupils at the Accademia, but he might have consulted the master regularly, atended private lessons in copying the master’s drawings as exercise, shown him his progress and had his works corrected. 17 Unfortunately, only painted copies have been safely atributed to Schröder up to the present. Schröder’s copy ater he Baptism of Christ by Guido Reni for the Church of St John the Baptist in Jindřichův Hradec, the copy ater Bernardo Strozzi of he Sermon of St John the Baptist today preserved at Litoměřice Cathedral of St Stephen, and a series of forty-three copies ater original paintings from the Prague Castle Gallery that Schröder painted between 1688–1689 under commission of