Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/161

 them were Germans, Theodorich and Nicholas Wurmser from Strassburg, the Italian painter Thomas of Modena—these three co-operated upon the interior decorations of the castle Karlštejn; two Frenchmen, Matthew of Arras and Peter Parleur, built the St. Vitus cathedral, while the pride of the Hradčany castle square, the statue of St. George overcoming the dragon, was cast in 1373 by two brothers, Martin and George of Klausenburg, in Transylvania. By the way, the British Museum at one time offered $80,000 for this rare work of art.

The presence of the foremost masters of the contemporary world of art was necessarily a tremendous encouragement to the home talent. And the art of Bohemia, while conforming to the general medieval atmosphere, soon manifested a distinct form and acquired at the same time a progressive trait advancing beyond the generally accepted norms. “Paintings enclosed in the walls of the Karlštejn castle, colored illustrations on the pages of our books, brought into the medieval art the first wave of living realism growing out of domestic concepts. In them appeared truth as the Czech people saw it,” says Mádl in his striking characterization of the Bohemian art of the fourteenth century.

Further development was held up by the Hussite wars. Fine arts need today, and needed even more in former days, domestic peace and tranquility, if they are to flourish. As the Romans expressed it, “inter arma silent Musae”. But even the stormy years of the fifteenth century could not destroy the roots of the independent Bohemian art. Up to the beginning of the sixteenth century there are traces of this vigorous art not merely in Bohemia, but also in the neighboring lands. The contemporary works of art of Nuremberg and Augsburg display clearly the influence of Bohemian models.

When under King George Poděbrad peace ruled again in the Czech lands, a new period opened in the history of fine arts; and during the reign of his successor Vladislav of the Polish Jagielo dynasty the outburst was so splendid that we speak of the Vladislav style, especially in sculpture and architecture. The gifted Master Beneš of Louny supervised at that time the construction of the splendid church of St. Barbara in Kutná Hora, while in Prague he carried out the alterations of the royal castle of Hradčany, for which purpose Vladislav devoted great sums. The new castle hall alone, known as Vladislav’s room, completed by Beneš of Louny in 1502, cost 40,000 “three-scores” of Bohemian groschen, about $120,000 of our money. It is so magnificent that it has few equals in later Gothic. Powder Tower, adjoining the present Public Reception Hall of the City of Prague, dates also from the reign of Vladislav. It was built by Matouš Rejsek of Prostějov.

The second quarter of the 16th century is the period, when the Italian renaissance flourished in Bohemia. Two of its finest monuments are the Pleasure House of Queen Anne, also called the Belvidere on the Letná Hill in Prague, and the villa Hvězda (Star) at Liboce near Prague. The former was built upon the order of Emperor Ferdinand I. for his wife Anna Jagielo, “the last Bohemian queen”, whose love for the Czech people is the theme of Zeyer’s poem “Olgerd Gejštor.” It is one of the finest memorials of Italian remaissance north of the Alps. It was built from 1535 to 1563 by Giovanni de Spatio, Pietro Ferrabosco di Lugano and Juan Maria de Speciecasa; sculptor’s work was done by Paolo dela Stella. Emperor Rudolf II. made it the residence of his astronomers and held long discourses here with the great Tycho de Brahe. The other monument of renaissance architecture, the “Hvězda”, was built by Ferdinand’s son, Archduke Ferdinand, for the beautiful Philippa Welser whom he had met at the Diet of Augsburg in 1550 and later married clandestinely. This structure in the shape of a six cornered star was put up in 1556–1563 and excels all architecture of the period both in plan and in execution. Today only insignificant remains are left, principally stucco ceilings with a wealth of mythological figures, reliefs of incomparable lightness and facility. The artists were again Spatio, Ferrabosco, Stella and in addition Hans Tiroll and Boniface Wolgemut.

A new artistic period blossoms out in the years 1576 to 1612 under Emperor Rudolf Il.who oncemore made Prague the center of Europe, having fixed his residence there permanently. Again sculptors and painters and architects from all the world gathered there. How Prague appeared then and what a truly “Bohemian” life coursed through it we learn from the beautiful engravings of the then court engraver Jilji Sadeler. Rudolf did not spare money. The royal tomb in the St. Vitus church, erected