After this, the old territorial patriotism vanished, even among the artists in whom it had survived, uniting Czechs and Germans for joint undertakings, and henceforth the two nationalities were to evolve separately, along different paths and towards different goals. Accordingly, Czechoslovak art was born in the years immediately following 1848; painting discovered its true ideal, sculpture and architecture cast off their slough of decadence and rendered vigorous aid to the development of the regenerate Czech nation.
But the programme of independent Czech art was as yet a mere skeleton, and had to be clothed with flesh and blood. Ruben’s pupils were unequal to the task, with the exception of one man of genius, who soon contrived to shake off the master’s influence, even opposed his teaching, and went straight for his goal, swerving far aside from the academic path.
It would have been difficult, however, even for a Josef Mánes, to create a national art, had there not existed in Bohemia, from the very outset, by the side of the School and even in antagonism to it, a tradition which, although unrecognised and almost dormant, nevertheless linked the present with the mighty past. In contrast to the abstract idealism of the Academy, this tradition clung to the principles of the robust and exuberant Baroque style of painting. Some minor masters, landscape and portrait painters, had retained a feeling for Nature and a predilection for rich colour. Among them the landscape painter, Antonín Mánes, father of the great Josef, stands pre-eminent. He taught landscape painting at the Academy at a time when this branch of painting was not rated at its proper worth. Thus he could not vie with his colleagues of the School, the lovers of sacred and historical themes, addicted as he was to homely outdoor scenes, and never elevating his simple and sincere art to the pompous grandeur of the idealised classical landscape. More than any of his contemporaries he was
