History of Bohemia in Pictures (title page)

The History of Bohemia in Pictures, a print series published from 1820 by the artist Antonín Machek, is linked to the beginnings of lithography in Bohemia. Through this medium, the series was disseminated as a source of information about Bohemia’s history subjects and provided an impulse for Czech history painting. Originally, 120 scenes were planned for publication, resulting in the execution of 72 sheets in individual albums, with the last one issued in 1834. The prints of the first album dating from 1820 were mostly produced by Machek himself, while the following scenes were executed under his supervision by numerous younger artists, who both composed and lithographed the sheets. In the second edition of 1824, rendered by Antonín Mánes, Machek’s composition of the title page (depicting the Allegory of Czechia, the figure of Chronos and the coat-of-arms of Count Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, the dedicatee of the series) was simplified and the motif of a sleeping lion of Bohemia was replaced with a lion standing on a pedestal.