Prague Painters from 1640 to 1680: Artistic Dialogue and Rivalry

Prague Painters from 1640 to 1680: Artistic Dialogue and Rivalry

Provider and number: GAČR, 13-13174S

Duration: 2013–2015

Recitient: Institute of Art History, CAS

Principal investigator: Štěpán Vácha

Research team: Štěpán Vácha, Radka Tibitanzlová (Heisslerová)

This project examines painting in Prague in the years 1640 to 1680 – a period crucial to the shaping of Baroque culture in the Czech Lands and Central Europe. Following the considerable political and religious changes wrought by the Thirty Years’ War, Prague, as the artistic centre of the region, came to be newly redefined within the Central European context. This period also coincides with the artistic activity of Karel Škréta – the leading painter in Bohemia at this time. Founded on discoveries made by the research team thus far, the project will focus on Škréta’s little known and largely undervalued contemporaries: A. Stevens, M. Zimprecht, and J. Hess. Trained independently of Škréta, these painters also received considerable commissions in Prague and other Czech localities and maintained an individuated painting style despite Škréta’s dominance. The aim of this project is to reveal these artists as Škréta’s professional colleagues and even rivals who came up against one another in artistic dialogue and who markedly enriched the general tenor of early Baroque painting in Bohemia.

CEP