Fine Arts in Bohemia.
By Dr. J. E. S. Vojan.
The earliest examples of Bohemian art that were preserved to our times are miniatures (colored drawings) in old manuscripts. Monks, who in their cloisters copied books, embellished the initial letters of chapters by figures of saints, kings, or even by group pictures; these drawings have frequently a high historical value as authentic sources of our knowledge of contemporary costumes, customs and weapons.
During the administration of Abbot Božetěch who was himself an artist of many talents, being an excellent painter, sculptor and architect, the Sázava monastery enjoyed the fame of a great art center. This monastery was built for the priest Procopius by Prince Oldřich in 1024; the story of it was told in verse by Jaroslav Vrchlický in his beautiful St. “Procopius Legend”. This monastery was the last refuge of the Slavic ritual which the apostles of Moravia, Cyril and Methodius, introduced into the Czech lands. But even the Sázava monks used Latin in their writings. At any rate, it is a well-authenticated historical fact that Božetěch upon some holy day in 1091 placed the royal crown upon the head of King Vratislav and thereby broke the laws of the church. Coronation was the function of the bishop, and the bishop of Prague intended to punish in an exemplary manner the presumptuous abbot. But upon the intercession of the great nobles Bishop Cosmas relented and imposed upon Božetěch, who was a master woodcarver, this penalty: to make a life-size crucifix and carry it on his own shoulders all the way from Bohemia to St. Peter’s church in Rome. In the Sázava monastery was made among other things the famous “Vyšehrad Codex”, still preserved in the library of the Vyšehrad chapter and known also as “Vratislav’s Coronation Gospels”, having been made for the coronation of King Vratislav. It is one of the gems of medieval manuscript art. Even if judged by modern standards it is a gorgeous work. Every page displays a splendor of colors, the writing of each page is enclosed in a border with an appropriate ornamentation, the initial leters are fashioned in a masterly manner and intertwined with drawings.
For a long time these miniatures were the principal means by which the painter gave expression to his art. Of sculpture, very little has been preserved. But let no one imagine that Bohemia around the year 1100 was in a darkness void of all strivings after higher things. At this time, more than 800 years ago, our chronicler Cosmas, later a learned canon and prior of St. Vitus, spent a number of years in Liege with the celebrated Master Frank; young noblemen visited for the same purpose France and the Netherlands, the Bohemian king’s ambassadors were sent to Italy, Hungary, Poland and Germany, and all these relations with foreign lands helped to make the culture of Europe at home in Bohemia.
Monks of the monastery of Podlažice wrote about the year 1240 the well-known Codex Giganteus or Liber Pergrandis, which is still one of the biggest books of the world in size. It has over 300 heavy parchment sheets, and each sheet is three feet long and two feet wide. The codex was frequently lent to others, sometimes placed as security for loans, but finally the Swedes in the Thirty Years’ War took it away with them to Stockholm, where it is found today in the royal library.
When Charles IV. was king, Prague was the heart of Europe, for Charles was also emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. His reign is a time of rapid growth of Bohemian art; and for the first time now the Czech individuality leaves its distinct impress up on the arts of Bohemia.
When Charles ascended the throne in 1346, Bohemia’s intellectual relations with Western Europe became very close, all the spiritual currents that moved men’s souls in France, England, and Italy, were felt here, and the Czech lands began to breathe the air of Europe. Charles gave art an important place in his court, and only two years after his accession a brotherhood of painters was founded in Prague. John of Dražice, bishop of Prague, who returned in 1329 from Avignon, the luxurious seat of the popes, built for his episcopal residence on the Little Side of Prague a new palace ornamented with paintings; the prior’s church in Roudhice on the Elbe was also famous for its paintings. At the court of Charles there dwelt artists from all lands. Among
