Śmielec (Velký Šišák), From a series of 24 sheets with views of the Giant Mountains and Adršpach Rocks

Antonín Karel Balzer, the son and pupil of Johann Georg Balzer ((1736-1799), an accomplished engraver of the Late Baroque, was an artist of the pre-Romantic generation, who, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, turned to nature as a source of knowledge and inspiration, heightened sensitivity and sensory pleasure. His crucial artwork is a series of 24 views of the Giant (Krkonoše) Mountains and Adršpach Rocks, dating from 1793-1794, in which he put to use his experience gained through his art training in various artistic centres, especially Dresden. The cycle influenced artists of the following generations and was of pioneering importance even for the field of landscape painting in Bohemia. The view of Śmielec is etched only in rough contour lines, the watercolour renders atmospheric effects and captures the mood of a morning in a mountainous landscape. The figures standing in awe at the edge of a precipice - the draughtsman and his companion - embody the sense of the transience and insignificance of human life when compared with the eternal magnificence of the elements.