|
|
Spring Exhibits Not To Miss
| |
| |
New museum and gallery exhibits this spring cover a wide range of styles, periods, and topics
|
-
The call for reform of the Catholic church began well before Martin Luther rose in Germany. This Prague castle exhibit has collected art from the 240 years when reform both raged and flourished in the Czech lands.
Altarpieces and other paintings dominate. A beautiful baptismal font, elegant chalices, and a masterfully- carved wood scene of the Baptism of Christ are a joy to view, but some of the other pieces are more revealing of the feelings of more common folk. These include 6 unpainted clay tiles from a country stove (pec) decorated with relief images of chalices and satirical renderings of popes and cardinals. Do not miss the tiny delicately sculptured head of Jan Žizka, the Czech Hussite general with his eye patch, found in the rubble of Tabor, then a Hussite town. The final painting of the exhibit, definitely a Counter-Reformation statement about the Defenestration of 1618, depicts angels lifting the Catholic councilors who were thrown out the window being lifted to heaven.
Before you set off for this exhibit, read up a bit on the period, one of the most important in Czech history. The exhibit assumes basic knowledge about the preachings of Jan Hus and his burning at the stake during the Council of Constance, the rise of the Hussite movement and the Ultraquist church, the chalice as the symbol of communion "in both kinds," and finally the crushing of religious freedom after the loss of the Battle of White Mountain to the Counter-Reformation.
|
Hedgie provides three illustrated articles to help you prepare.
- Part I: Cracks in the Monolith.php
The 'universal church' is in trouble. Jan Hus, a priest, is a powerful voice for reform.
- Part II : Rage and Revolt
Two turbulent centuries after Hus is burned at the stake
- Part III : Counter-Reformation and Exodus
Part III covers the period after the Reformation was forcefully and brutally ended, giving some perspective on how Czechs look back on the two eras and why.
|
|
-
David Černý: Entropa, extended till April 30, 2010
If you have not seen this controversial work, this is the time and place to view it. The musem's ground floor and second floor viewpoints make it ideal for appreciating the details. Bulgaria no longer is shrouded in a cloth, as it had to be in Brussels after diplomatic protest.
- Not art, but the StB (Státní bezpečnost),
the former State Secret Police
- The StB Registry of Persons of Interest
From the electronic database of the State Police, hundreds of thousands of names are printed, enlarged, and glued to the walls from floor to ceiling. This is but a small fraction of the 777,000 names in the database. Unfortunately, if you are looking for your own name or someone else's, the printouts are in neither alphabetical nor birth order. Nevertheless, the stark exhibit, reached through unheated corridors apparently still under construction, gives a chilling impression. The cheery folk music in the background seems to be an ironic counterpoint. Until May 10, 2010
- Hidden StB lookout to open in the bell tower of St. Nicholas Church in Mala Strana.
Expect opening date in April. Prague Radio reports.
| |
|
