New Permanent Exhibition of the National Gallery in Prague - Collection of Old Masters

Supplier:   Unistav a.s. Brno
Architectonic and design of reconstruction:  Projektový ateliér pro architekturu a pozemní stavby, s.r.o
Resident inspector: Typaz, s.r.o.
Inspection of reconstruction: The National Conservation Institute, Regional Branch Prague
Main partner of the National Gallery: HVB Bank
Sponsor of the National Gallery: Synot Lotto, a.s.
Main media partner of the National Gallery: Hospodářské noviny
Media partners: Art & Antiques, Classic FM, ČRo 3 – Vltava

The Schwarzenberg Palace is one of the most beautiful Renaissance structures in Prague.
It was built in 1545–1567 by Agostino de Galli for Jan Lobkowicz Jr. In the late 16th century, the Lobkowicz family lost the palace in confiscation; its new owners were the Rožmberks, Švamberks, Eggenberks and eventually the Schwarzenbergs.

In the early 18th century, Baroque adjustments were made by M. Canevalle and later T. Haffenecker after a design of A. E. Martinelli. The next adjustments – this time classicist ones – were carried out in the late 18th and in the first half of the 19th centuries. The sgraffiti were restored after a design of J. Schulz in 1871–1893 and in the 1950s.
 
Exhibition activities in the building began in 1910 when the Technical Museum used its premises for its collections. They were replaced by the exhibition of the Military Museum in the second half of the 20th century. The National Gallery acquired the premises in 2002 through gratis conveyance and became entitled to administer them. The National Gallery took over the building from the Defence Ministry. 

In 2002, preparatory works were under way; the construction site was recorded by the Culture Ministry in the Finance Ministry’s registry in October 2002 and subsequently a submission approval was issued. The budget allocated by the Project’s Administrator amounted to 261,748,000 crowns. The government’s resolution of April 14, 2003, appointed a commission to assess the offers presented in a public tender for the supplier of reconstruction. The winner was Unistav, a.s. Brno. 

The architectonic design was commissioned to Projektový ateliér pro architekturu a pozemní stavby, s.r.o., and Typaz, s.r.o. became a Resident Inspector. The reconstruction was permanently inspected by the National Conservation Institute, Regional Branch Prague.
 The reconstruction produced 4,009 metres square of exhibition premises as opposed to the originally planned 2,572 metres square. In addition to this area, the necessary service facilities were built.

The total cost of the reconstruction including VAT amounted to the total of 261,748,000 crowns, with the building and technological restoration of the premises performed by Unistav, a.s. representing 241,241,000 crowns of the total, including VAT, design and engineering work representing 17,195,000 crowns, archival technology 1,900,000 crowns and salvage archaeological research 996,000 crowns.

It should be emphasized that cooperation between all participants of the reconstruction was good and the result is a success. Besides, extra work cost very little. The original price of construction work based on the tender was 205,395,000 including VAT. The legislation change of the five-percent VAT to 19 per cent increased the price of construction work performed after the deadline by 19,800,000 crowns. The additional design alteration of the use of the attic premises and salvage of the Renaissance ceiling increased the price by 8,445,000 crowns. This alteration increased the area of the exhibition premises by 509 metres square of attractive premises, while originally the attic was supposed to be left unused. Another change was the investor’s decision to build a modern archival facility, including a research room, in the palace’s administration wing. This alteration increased the original price by 3,500,000 crowns. Another additional increase by 1,800,000 crowns was brought about by restoration of Renaissance paintings which had been discovered in the interiors during reconstruction. In total, the changes resulting from the alteration of legislation, expansion of the premises and restoration proposed by the conservationists increased the original price by 33,545,000 crowns. The investor does not regard these changes as extra work but essential expansion of reconstruction. The increase mentioned above was covered from the budget reserves under the budget approved, with some of the means acquired by leaving out certain luxurious elements which had been originally planned but were not part of construction and technological work.

The extra work that had to be performed because of the project’s adjustments to enhance fire prevention, unforeseen work, changed standards and adjustment to the EU standards increased the price by only 2,301,000 crowns. The National Gallery in Prague appreciates the reconstruction carried out after the architectonic concept by architect Tomáš Šantavý. The design essentially and sensitively restores the frame of the structure of historical value building in modern technology.

New Permanent Exhibition of the National Gallery in Prague
Collection of Old Masters

New exhibition of Baroque art in the Schwarzenberg Palace: From March 28, 2008

Permanent exhibition: Baroque in Bohemia

Expert preparation of the exhibition: Doc. PhDr. Vít Vlnas, PhD., PhDr. Tomáš Hladík,
Mgr. Andrea Rousová
Curators: Doc. PhDr. Vít Vlnas, PhD., PhDr. Tomáš Hladík, Mgr. Andrea Rousová
Architectonic design: Ing. arch. Pavel Kupka, ak. arch. Vlastimil Vagadaj
Restoration: Restoration Dept. of the National Gallery in Prague + part-time restorers
Installations: installation team of the National Gallery in Prague + part-time company
Lighting: IGuzzini
Loaners and partner institutions: the National Museum in Prague, Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, City Museum Prague, National Conservation Institutes of Central Bohemia, Prague, Plzeň, Pardubice and České Budějovice, several parishes of the Roman-Catholic Church, Benedictine monastery in Prague-Břevnov, Premonstratensian monastery in Prague’s Strahov, Franciscan monastery in Prague’s New Town, Dominican monastery in Prague’s Old Town, Premonstratensian monasteries in Nová Říše and Teplá and private collectors.
Restoration of ceiling and wall paintings: Restaurátorská umělecká společnost Brandl s.r.o.

The new exhibition in the Schwarzenberg Palace’s reconstructed premises will cover three floors offering some 160 sculptures and 280 examples of late Renaissance and Baroque painting made between the late 16th and late 18th centuries in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

The interior layout of the Schwarzenberg Palace and position of individual rooms designed
for the future exhibition “Baroque in Bohemia” led to a decision as early as 2002 to present 17th- and 18th-century Baroque sculpture and painting separately. Sculpture will be installed on the ground floor – both near the entrance to the building, where the visitors will be “greeted” by the well-known stone statues of M. B. Braun from the attic of the Clam-Gallas Palace in Prague (1714–1716), two Angels from the hermitage near Lysá nad Labem and the statues of Blackamoors from the castle gate in Kounice made by F. M. Brokof; another part of the exhibition of sculpture will be located in three adjacent rooms and designed according to traditional chronology and style periods of early, high and late Baroque. The adjacent so-called Sketch Room will house the exhibition of the best-quality examples of day-to-day workshop practice primarily in the 18th century, which will be presented in such amounts for the first time; especially the sculpture and painting sketches, author’s and workshop replicas and copies.

The main exhibition on the first and second floors shows exclusively the best-quality artefacts, the majority of which is familiar to the viewers from the existing exhibition in St George’s Convent.

It will also be designed in accordance with the established chronology of style cycles beginning with late Renaissance and its examples of the work of artists active in the Prague court of Emperor Rudolf II, to a Baroque cycle dated from the late 18th century. The new presentation will be based on all major names of the local art in the 17th and 18th centuries highlighting the key figures in painting and sculpture. A well-balanced display of artwork will show painter Hans von Aachen, Bartholomaeus Spranger, Roelant Savery, Michael Willmann, Jan Kryštof Liška, Václav Vavřinec Reiner, Anton Kern, Jan Petr Molitor and Norbert Grund. Separate representative rooms are reserved for the key personalities of Bohemian Baroque painting – Karel Škréta and Petr Brandl to highlight the outstanding qualities of the two collections of paintings considered rightly the pride of the National Gallery’s assemblage of old masters.

One of the rooms on the first floor will house the deliberately confrontational abundant collection of portraits by Petr Brandl and Jan Kupecký, who responded to the identical sources of inspiration in European portrait painting. A specific installation form of paintings based on bilateral symmetry (counterpart pairs of landscapes, still lifes and figural compositions) will echo the period popularity of the aristocrats’ picture galleries where also other rare artefacts could be found, including cabinet-type sculptures of refined materials such as bronze, ivory, tortoise shell, marble and alabaster. The painting collections of the 18th-century artists will be accompanied with examples of carving (by I. F. Platzer, J. A. Quitainer, P. Prachner etc.) installed in modern showcases with perfect lighting.

Tomáš Hladík

The National Gallery in Prague – Collection of 19th-century Art
Exhibition of Czech art in St George’s Convent in Hradčany

From May 7, 2008

Concept and preparation of the exhibition: PhDr. Naděžda Blažíčková-Horová, PhDr. Šárka Leubnerová
Curators: PhDr.  Naděžda Blažíčková-Horová, PhDr. Šárka Leubnerová, PhDr. Irena Nývltová
Architectonic design: Ak. arch. Vladimír Hora
Restoration work: restoration team of the National Gallery in Prague
Installation: Installation team of the Exhibition Department of the National Gallery in Prague

The new exhibition of Czech 19th-century painting, sculpture and applied arts, which is under preparation in St George’s Convent in Hradčany is designed as an illustrative display of all major art trends and their representatives – just as the preceding exhibition of the Collection of 19th century Art in the Veletržní Palace. The exhibits – some of them different – seek to show that Czech art developed and successfully coped with all major period intellectual streams and styles as the other European countries. Many assemblages dedicated to a single artist, which are the core of the exhibition’s concept, will show that the best artwork of Czech 19th-century art is in its specific way comparable with anything produced in the other art centres in Europe. Under the influence of the changing cultural and socio-economic circumstances, Czech art underwent many transformations since the late 18th century. Like in entire Europe, communication between the artists and the public changed considerably in Bohemia. Since the early 19th century, literature, music, architecture, sculpture, painting and artistic crafts expressed desires, feelings and needs of the shaping layer of burghers. The enterprising bourgeoisie was richer and richer producing not only entrepreneurs but also representatives of Czech intelligentsia and becoming a principal commissioner and sponsor of arts. A history of Czech 19th-century art is a history of Bohemian society of the time. The construction of the National Theatre in Prague was a major historic event of the 19th century. Besides its political significance – it became a symbol of the Czech national revival and struggle for independence – it was also a manifestation of the cultural and artistic maturity of the 19th-century nation. The construction and decoration brought together a multitude of artists, the first 19th-century artistic team of painters and sculptors with a clear programme and goal. It included J. Mařák, M. Aleš, F. Ženíšek, V. Brožík, V. Hynais, J. V. Myslbek and others.

The exhibition will show a specific cultural atmosphere of 19th-century Bohemia, but especially Prague, in paintings and statues, models and sketches for tombstone sculptures, many painted and sculpted portraits of prominent figures of contemporary social and cultural life and examples of decorative arts. In terms of their artistic view, painting, sculpture and arts and crafts are in harmony; they are based on the identical ideas and principles, generally testifying to the time and venue of origin and the contemporary society and tmosphere. Unlike the preceding display in the Veletržní Palace, the exhibition in St George’s Convent will show a connection with Czech late 18th-century art by offering an initial comparison between the work of N. Grund and artworks of F. X. Procházka, Ch. Seckl and L. Kohl.

It will finish with the generation born between the 1850s and 1860s and examples of the early work of artists, such as G. Max, B. Knüpfer, E. K. Liška, M. Pirner or J. Schikaneder, while the late artwork of these artists will serve as an illustrative prelude to the advent of the 1890s generation (such A. Slavíček, F. Kaván, J. Preisler, A. Hudeček) in the Veletržní Palace – i.e. the generation dealing with new artistic principles and ideas and deliberately and programmatically differing from their teachers. The 1890s generation is a distinct divide between the traditional 19th-century concept and the modern views of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the history of art acknowledges.

The exhibition in St George’s Convent will be enriched  with several works of art by painters and sculptors, who are currently not on display in the Veletržní Palace. It will be complemented by a number of sculptures (primarily those of J. V. Myslbek) demonstrating how the National Gallery used the resources of the Culture Ministry that was allocated for restoration of artwork damaged by the floods. As a surprise, the visitors will also see a few selected pieces from private collections, which used to be familiar and much admired. The concept of the new permanent exhibition also anticipates expanded variable exhibition premises in the Convent, which will present more themes of 19th century art to the public in the future.

Naděžda Blažíčková-Horová

The National Gallery in Prague – Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art

Modified Permanent Exhibition

Veletržní Palace, 4th floor

The changes adopted in the Permanent Exhibition of Modern Art in the Veletržní Palace seek to enlighten and deepen a view of the genesis of Czech modern art. The 1890s when Czech art rose to stand on modern foundations are rightly seen as a turning point in the development of Czech modern art. This period has not yet been given a space adequate to its significance.
The new installation concept of the National Gallery in Prague’s collections offers a chance to show the dynamic milestone in Czech art in its complexity and convincing power. As a departure point, the work of the artists who became teachers and patrons of the upcoming revolutionary generation of the 1890s will be recalled, such as Julius Mařák, Antonín Chittussi, Josef Václav Myslbek, Mikoláš Aleš, Max Pirner and Jakub Schikaneder, i.e. the artists who provided training and stimuli for the 1890s generation, whose principal challenge was to develop new concepts of work. They permeated three sources of new creative thinking: 1. realism, naturalism and Art Nouveau; 2. decadence and symbolism; and 3. Art Nouveau decorativism, abstraction and expressionism. A group of artists re-orienting 19th-century academism to new creative challenges was the first to win success, their expression focusing rather on the international scene, namely the artwork of Karel Vítězslav Mašek, Alfons Mucha, Luděk Marold and František Dvořák. However, only a critical detachment from this group made it possible for František Kaván, Antonín Slavíček, Jan Preisler, Antonín Hudeček, František Bílek, Stanislav Sucharda, Bohumil Kafka and Jan Štursa to achieve self-determination of Czech modern art. Quite rare was the position of František Kupka in the 1890s generation. Kupka’s work ranging from historical and social-oriented symbolism to basic levels of abstraction is an apex of the Permanent Exhibition of Czech Modern Art on the fourth floor of the Veletržní Palace.           

Tomáš Vlček