Statues at the Monastery

After my last post about Czech religious art, I though I might share with you some lovely statues we found the other day.

In the gardens of the Dominican Monastery next to the Church of on the Sacrifice of the Virgin in Piarist Square (Ceske Budejovice) is a series of wonderful statues of religious figures. Sometimes the gate to the Garden is closed, but my husband and I found them open yesterday and wandered in. Here are some photos of what we found.

Including this rather severe St Anne!

Czech Church Art

One of the more frustrating things in the Czech Republic is that every time I try to visit a church I find it locked. Being British I expect to walk in and look around or at least go to a nearby house to collect a key. On a walk with a friend I discussed why this was and she told me about the problem the country has with thefts from churches. As a result churches have to be locked up and visitors like myself denied.

Now Ceske Novinny has run an article on the problem which shocked and appalled me. Apparently 90 per cent of religious buildings have been burgled since 1989.

In the article the diocesan heritage preserver to the Prague Archbishopric is quoted as saying "About a half of Gothic and Renaissance works of art and roughly one-third of baroque artifacts have disappeared (from Czech churches) in the past 20 years."

The culprits are often organized gangs linked to specialist foreign art traffickers who take the stolen artifacts across the border to Austria and Germany. The situation has been exacerbated by the relaxation of the border with the creation of the Schengen area. It is a terrible thing that these precious artifacts, which have a religious and cultural value which exceeds their monetary one, managed to survive atheist communism only to fall foul of black market forces under democracy.

Themes in the Blog - Czech Customs and Culture

As the blog gets larger I thought I might help readers interested in certain topics by creating some pages which list the blog's content by theme. I promise to update the pages as new posts are added.

The themes are: Czech Nature, Czech Customs & Culture, Places to visit in South Bohemia, Buying and Restoring a Czech House, Czech History and Politics, Day to Day Life in the Czech Republic. This post covers Czech Customs and Culture, click on the links above for the others.

CZECH CUSTOMS AND CULTURE

• Kvinterna Again
  
• Concert Hall for Budejovice
  
• Music
  
• Mayday 2010
  
• Jiri Barta
  
• Czechoslovakian Folkdance
  
• Jindrichuv Hradec
  
• Statues at the Dominican Monastery, Budejovice
  
• Czech Church Art
  
• Czech Art
  
• Czech Weddings
• White Hairs
• Art Nouveau Architecture
• Timber
  
• Jiri Trnka Filmmaker
• Jiri Trnka Illustrator
• Gingerbread House
• Festival of the Five Petalled Rose
• Witches and Maypoles (May Day)
• Bohemian Baroque
• Masopust in Cesky Krumlov (Shrove Tuesday)
• Masopust in Horice na Sumave
• Krtek the Mole
• Rococo Treasures
• Czech House Pixies
• Twelfth Night
• New Year 2009
• Carp Czech Christmas
• Edith Pargeter Czechophile
• Czech Cafe Culture
• St Hubert's Hunt
• Czech Maps
• Closely Observed Trains
• Water Sprite
• Rotating Theatre
• Masopust at Cowley Road Carnival
• Czech Folk Dance
• Tatra Car
• Iva Bittova
  
• Czech Slippers
• Dressing Up As Angels
• The Plague Column
• Bringing Masopust To Oxford
• Stifter Trail
• Visible World
• Kvinterna
• New Year's Eve in Krumlov
• Bears in the Moat
• Carp Ponds
• Czechs and the Devil
• Jan Svankmajer
• Horice Na Sumave Passion Play
• Czech Graffiti
  
• Czech Coffee and Tea
• Svejk or Kafka
• Gardens and Gardening (Karel Capek)
• Alchemist's House
• Maypoles and Witches
• Crosses and Shrines
• Easter in the Czech Republic
• Puppets
• Celts

Egon Schiele and Cesky Krumlov

When it comes to local artists none is more famous than Egon Schiele. Schiele moved to his mother's hometown Cesky Krumlov in 1911 with his girlfriend and model Wally Neuzil. He had been visiting the town since his childhood and had been inspired by it to do some of his earliest work, including his earliest landscape - of the Budweiser gate. Although his life in the town came to an abrupt end in the face of the anger from the local burghers, who were shocked by his use of young girls as models, he returned to the town time and again for short stays to sketch the architecture, often from the hills above.

Now of course all is forgiven and Cesky Krumlov celebrates his work. The Egon Schiele Centrum is a major attraction - a large art gallery offering a small celebration of Schiele's life and work together with large visiting art exhibitions by different artists. The exhibitions vary in their interest, but it is always worth checking what is on at the Centrum if you are visiting Cesky Krumlov.

Czech Art

I have just been enjoying a fascinating post on the blog Adventures in the Print Trade about Czech Graphics of the 1970s. As I indicated in a previous post on Jiri Trnka - a visit to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Trade Fair Palace in Prague first opened my eyes to the wealth and creativity of Czech artists that was hidden by the Iron Curtain, and it is good to see Neil of the Print Trade blog making the same discovery.

One of the delights of discovering Czech art and especially its graphics is for me the influence of fairytales - another reason why I am not surprised that it has struck a chord with Neil, who is an authority on the subject. Fairytales seem to have infused Czech life in a way that is very special. So often people coming to my part of the world will comment that Cesky Krumlov is a fairytale place. And whilst visually I can see why people might say this, I think it is something more profound, something deep in the Czech pysche, that is calling.

Czech graphics are distinctive. There is something playlike about them, they have a humour that can be dark (like many a Grimm fairytale) but also are light of touch. My Czech puppeteer friend who first introduced me to this place is also, among her many accomplishments, a wonderful artist. In particular I like her prints. She was always being told when she was living and working in England how unusual her art was. Without in anyway diminishing the standard and originality of her work I now can see that it is rooted in the graphics of her homeland.

Blog Themes - Czech History and Politics

As the blog gets larger I thought I might help readers interested in certain topics by creating some pages which list the blog's content by theme. I promise to update the pages as new posts are added.

The themes are: Czech Nature, Czech Customs & Culture, Places to visit in South Bohemia, Buying and Restoring a Czech House, Czech History and Politics, Day to Day Life in the Czech Republic. This post covers Czech History and Politics, click on the links above for the others.

CZECH HISTORY AND POLITICS

• Golden Path Celebrations
  
• Budweiser Budvar
  
• Elections
  
• More on Riverworks
  
• Jindrichuv Hradec
  
• Farming and the Landscape
  
• Czech Church Art
  
• Egon Schiele
  
• Art Nouveau in Ceske Budejovice
• Prachatice
• Kratochvile
• Exchange Rate
• Airport Security
• Ducks Fight Back in Cesky Krumlov
• Town Planning and Cesky Krumlov
• More on Town Planning and Cesky Krumlov
• Flood Control and Willows
• Does UNESCO Know
• Beachcombing on the Vltava
• Update on Flood Measures
• Message to Krumlov Town Hall
• UNESCO Acts
• Update on Riverworks
• Vyssi Brod Walk
• Vyssi Brod
• Finsterau Museum of Sumava Architecture
• Boletice Church
• The Czech Roma
• Bohemian Baroque
• Rococo Treasures of Kvitkuv Dvur
• Ales Gallery Of Gothic Art
• Lady at the Window (fresco)
• And the Monkey
• 1968 Russian Invasion
• Schwarzenberg Canal
• Rotating Theatre
• More on the Castle Gardens
• Mystery Car
• Centre of Europe
• Centre of Europe 2
• Follow up on Centre of Europe
• Compare and Contrast
• Olsina
• Against the Radar
• Plague Column
• Carp Farming - Jakub Krcin
  
• Visit to Ceske Budejovice
• Whitewashing
• Svejk or Kafka
• Sad Story of the Alchemist's House
• UNESCO Or Not
• Crosses and Shrines
• Sudetenland
• Good Friday at Rimov
• Prague First Impressions
• Something About the Celts

This post was updated on the 8th August 2010.

Blog Themes - Buying and Restoring a Czech House

As the blog gets larger I thought I might help readers interested in certain topics by creating some pages which list the blog's content by theme. I promise to update the pages as new posts are added.

The themes are: Czech Nature, Czech Customs & Culture, Places to visit in South Bohemia, Buying and Restoring a Czech House, Czech History and Politics, Day to Day Life in the Czech Republic. This post covers Buying and Restoring a Czech House, click on the links above for the others.

BUYING AND RESTORING A CZECH HOUSE

• Restoring an Old Farmhouse Making a Home
• Getting Ready for Czech Winter
• Scything
• Well in the Cellar
• Art Nouveau Architecture - New Property Search company
• Latest on the Central Heating
• Thaw
• No Hot Water
• Whether To Get a Czech Lawnmower
• New Stove
• Decorating a Czech Farmhouse
• Bohemian
• Update on the House
• Indispensable Tool
• Dryrot
• Chopping Wood
• Roots - Love of Wood
• Roots - The Shed
• The Search for the House
• The Search for the House 2
• Finding the House
• A First Look at the Barn
• Looking Back
• Finding the House - The Old Man
• Debating the Builders
• My First Winter in the House 1
  
• My First Winter in the House 2
  
• My First Winter in the House 3
  
• My First Winter in the House 4
  
• My First Winter in the House 5
• Chimney
• The Party
• In the Orchard
• Making Our House a Home
• Whitewashing
• Beer - Czech Breakfast
• Beginnings - the House
• Why Buy a House in South Bohemia
• First Impressions - The Train
• Beginnings - Fairies
• Beginnings - Puppets
• Beginnings - The Puppeteer