Křivoklát

Antonín Mánes

Antonín Mánes - Křivoklát
With his paintings of Karlštejn (painted in 1836, today lost) and Křivoklát, the two historically most important medieval castles in Bohemia, Mánes implemented the Romantic ideas, which in literature brought patriotic stories and plays. For his probably last major composition, a view of the royal castle Křivoklát from the east, Mánes chose a motif fully in line with Romanticism, yet his vision was that of a landscape painter wishing to put on canvas as faithfully as possible, what he actually saw. In 1826 Křivoklát was badly damaged by a fire that destroyed all shingle roofs at the castle and and in the settlement surrounding it - by 1850 the damage was only partially repaired. Mánes did not fully reflect this situation - he certainly knew the condition of the castle before the fire and accordingly painted the damaged parts of the castle standing on a bare hill above a local brook (Rakovnický potok). He completed his idealized view of the Gothic castle, standing in a forest and flooded by the noon sun of a summer day, with some staffage. The painting, prepared by a whole set of water-colour sketches, was exhibited for the first time soon after its completion at the spring exhibition of the artists' association Krasoumná jednota in 1842.
date:
measurements: height 105 cm
width 147,5 cm
material: canvas
technique: oil
inscription:
inventory number: O 9511
gallery collection: Collection of 19th Century Art and Classical Modernism

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