Art Tuesday

Both of these paintings come from the permanent art displayed in the St. George's Convent on the grounds of the Prague Castle. All of the art contained within that gallery is national art from the 19th century. I always find it entertaining to go to museums that feature local artists since you probably would never see their art outside of that country. I highly recommend you take the time to look at the art museum if you are already going to the castle anyway. The texts in this post come from the signs that accompanied each painting. As you can tell, the signage was quite extensive and was written both in Czech and English.

Emil Jan Lauffer (1837-1909)
Kriemhild's Accusation 1879

"Nibelungenlied fascinated many German Romanticists, and in the second half of the 19th century also the Prague painter Emil Lauffer. His is an epic composition, three meters long, the scene taken from Chapter XVII of the epic, in which Kriemhild accuses Gunther and Hagen of having murdered her husband Siegfried, incited by the jealous Brunhild. Stricken by grief Kriemhild calls upon the heavens for judgment, leaving the dead body of her husband, where it fell, so as to reveal, in accordance with ancient custom, the murderers by a stream of blood, which would once more gush out at their presence. Lauffer's painting is based on a picture of the same scene painted in 1835 by Carl Rahl, but reversed as a mirror reflection."

Karel Svoboda (1824-1870)
The Subjugated Inhabitants of Milan before Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1863)

"The heroic deeds of the Bohemian army in the service of the Emperor during his campaign against Milan in 1158, which earned the Bohemian Duke Vladislav the Royal crown, was a favorite motif with 19th century writers and painters. Svoboda depicted the inhabitants of Milan passing in procession before Emperor Barbarossa and the Bohemian King Vladislav, who stood next to him, to clamor for mercy. Although the Emperor granted them his mercy, the war between the city and the Emperor soon flared up again. Details of the Italian campaign were recorded in the annals of the Prague canon and chronicler Vincencius, participant of Vladislav's Italian expedition. It was, moreover, described by Karl Vladislav Zap (1812-1871) in his Bohemian-Moravian Chronicle, the most probable source of Svoboda's information."