In Prague: Art Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, things fell into place enough that I was able to travel to Prague this summer - the art and buildings there are so great, I really want to share more with you!

Alfons Mucha was an Art Noveau artist who was born in the Czech Republic (Moravia to be more specific).  Many of you may know him by his posters of Sarah Bernhardt.  (It is here that I will tell you that while at the Mucha Museum, one was not permitted to take photos. However, I cannot control my children any longer as they are both adults and these are their photos!)

He also designed many other things, such as postage stamps, posters, wallpaper, theater sets and cracker tins to name a few.  Mucha designed a stained glass window that can be found in St. Vitus Cathedral (Prague Castle).  Below is my photo of the window.

His biggest project, which took him years to complete, is The Slav Epic. It's a series of 20 very large paintings that celebrates the history of slavic people.  He considered this to be his life's work, and gifted it to Prague, which is housed in the Narodni Gallery in Prague where you can take photos.  Here are the photos I took.  They don't do it justice!

They are quite beautiful in a very somber way, and as you can see from the one photo, very large!  The last photo, Slavs in their Original Homeland, is my favorite.

While we were there, we also saw an Ai Wei Wei exhibit of his Chinese zodiac sculptures.  Ironically, he has an exhibit here in Pittsburgh which I did not see, but did see it in Prague!

You might have guessed that my birth year is the Year of the Snake, which is why I took a separate photo of it!

In the Jewish Section of Prague, called Josefov, one can find many beautiful synagogues.  One in particular is the Spanish Synagogue and oh my is it beautiful!  Here are a few photos I took there.

When we left the synagogue tour area, we came upon a market, and purchased a handmade clay Golem!  We were quite excited!

I hope you enjoyed my photos today - next post, I'll share my side trips to Kutna Hora and Cesky Krumlov, very interesting and beautiful places!  Thanks for reading!

In Prague::Art

I was lucky enough to travel to Prague this summer; my daughter was doing study abroad and the airfare came down enough and my parents gave us enough Holiday Inn points to make our rooms free, so we joined her at the end of her school session!  It was an amazingly beautiful and quick trip!  Today I'm going to share some art with you because it's so inspirational!  I think I'll have to break my trip into to posts, though, because there's so much!

The city of Prague is broken down into neighborhoods, and our hotel was in the Vysehrad section of the city.  Vysehrad is a historical fort city built in the 10th century on the Vltava River.  It's the home of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, and a cemetary that's the Czech version of  Pere LaChaise in Paris!

Many famous Czech artists are buried here, including Dvorak, Neruda, and Mucha. Franz Kafka, however, is buried in the New Jewish Cemetary, and we did not see his final resting place. 

Many of the roads in Prague are made of cobblestone, and the sidewalks are works of art themselves.

And of course, Kafka is everywhere! 

This apartment building on a street corner is apparently the birthplace of Franz Kafka, and the Café Kafka is on the bottom floor.

This statue is in the Josefov section of Prague, sculpted by Jaroslav Rona. 

This awesome piece of rotating art is by David Cerny - a kinetic sculpture by city hall in the Nove Mesto section of town.

An awesomely novel fact my daughter told me about - before the buildings had street numbers, the way to find what you were looking for was to look for little sculptures above the doorways!

We were also happy to explore enough to find the "Lennon Wall" located in Mala Strana - in brief, this wall was originally painted by Czech students unhappy with the communist regime.  The wall has undergone many changes during its' existence, and is still an active tourist attraction today! Please read the wiki link I provided, as it is quite interesting!

Well, I think that's enough for my first post on Prague.  In my next post, I'll take you to some amazingly beautiful buildings and show you more art!  Thanks for stopping by!

Susan Kennedy