Bartholomeus Spranger, on completing his training with Cornelis van Dalem, Jan Mandijn, and Frans Mostaert, had traveled to Paris and Italy in 1565, when he was about nineteen.

The Flemish Mannerist has worked on wall paintings in various churches.

At Rome, he had become, like El Greco, a protégé of Giulio Clovio.

Pope Pius V had appointed him court painter in 1570.

He had been summoned to Vienna by Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, who died soon after his arrival in 1576, but his successor Rudolf II had ben even more keen to employ him, and in 1581 he had been appointed court painter, the court having by then moved its seat to Prague, where he has remained.

Aegidius Sadeler, who lived in his house in Prague for some time, and Hendrik Goltzius have made engravings of his paintings, spreading Spranger's fame around Europe.

Spranger's paintings for Rudolf mostly depict mythological nudes in various complex poses, with some connection to the Emperor's esoteric Late-Renaissance philosophical ideas.

His paintings are the most characteristic of the final phase of Northern Mannerism; by far the best collection is in Vienna.

His drawings have great energy, in a very free technique.