representing the holy mountains of the Czechoslovak country: the mythical Říp where the ancestor of the Czech race came to a halt, the crescent-shaped Vyšehrad, figuring in so many legends, the royal Castle of Prague, the Blaník sheltering in its recesses the army of St. Wenceslaus before the final triumphant sortie; also Tábor and Domažlice, towns prominent in the Hussite wars, and other spots immortalised in the annals of Czechoslovak heroism. From Paris, Václav Brožík sent for the box itself a triple frieze glorifying Bohemia under Přemysl the Husbandman, Charles IV and Rudolf II.
The decoration of the Queen’s boudoir and of the staircase leading to the royal box was entrusted to a third artist, Vojtěch Hynais. Born in Vienna of Czech parents, initiated into art by Feuerbach and by the study of the great masters in Italy, he already had a very fair equipment in technical knowledge when he reached Paris. Paul Baudry, to whom he had secured an introduction, encouraged him with a few words of sincere praise and recommended him to Gérôme. In contrast to Brožík, who still adhered to the old methods, he acquired an enthusiasm for modern French painting of the luminous type. In 1879, he came into notice at the Salon through a fine Madonna with St. Albertine, and soon afterwards he took part in the re-decoration of the Prague National Theatre. He adorned the boudoir with four allegorical panels representing the four seasons, done partly while he was in Paris. Thus Prague came to know a new style of painting, saturated with light, in which even the shadows had a coloured transparency. The nudity of the figures is bathed in a limpid atmosphere, and they cast glossy reflections. The faces, and even the academic figures, are tinged with a piquant Parisian flavour. On the staircase, the allegories of Peace and of the Crown lands of St. Wenceslaus (Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) harmoniously blend idealistic composition with realism
