This article first of all deals systematically with the engraving of the Pietas and Madonnas of the Bohemian Beautiful Style, specifically the engravings on Mary’s head covering and Christ’s loincloth. It points out that this apparently merely decorative motif jointly formed the identity of the Bohemian Beautiful Style. The study of this enables us to trace, in greater detail than before, the spread of the Bohemian Beautiful Style to a wide area of Europe. The motifs of the Bohemian Beautiful Style are not original. Clearly the sole exception among the motifs of the Bohemian Beautiful Style is the autochthonic motif of the engraving of the cloths of Mary and Christ, unknown before this, but additionally documented in several variations. This engraving marks almost all the classical stone Madonnas of the Bohemian Beautiful Style. The engraved Madonnas of the Bohemian Beautiful Style executed in wood are of a later date. Relatively the oldest is the recently published torso of a Madonna in the Michigan Ann Arbor Museum (ca. 1395–1400), according to the presence of the engraving work of a carver more probably from Prague than Vienna. Engraving was found on all four of the Parléř Pietas of the so-called Brno group surmised by Albert Kutal. The most significant of these is the monumental Pieta in the Brno church of St Thomas (ca. 1385). There are dozens of stone Pietas from the supreme period of the Bohemian Beautiful Style with primarily verified engraving. The use of engraving techniques on the Bohemian Beautiful Madonnas and Pietas had a topical, later completely forgotten, iconographic, symbolic and religious function. It was linked with the veneration of the veil of the Virgin Mary kept in the treasury of St Vitus’ Cathedral and its ceremonial public display. Research on the engraving of the large number of preserved Beautiful Style statues represents a long-term task, the fulfilment of which to its full extent exceeds the possibilities of any individual and of the profession of art historian. Cooperation is essential with technologists, restorers and professional photographers on an international level.

In 1862 Karel Purkyně painted one of his best -known pictures: the still life Snowy Owl. The aim of this article is a fresh interpretation of this canvas. On the basis of older explanations of the painting, certain theoretical concepts including Purkyně’s own opinions and knowledge of the artistic practices of the time the question arises as to whether the painting might not be interpreted as a hidden allegory. This means revealing its hitherto unknown content, encoded in a specific manner differing from symbolic expression. The text recapitulates how Purkyně’s work was received in the past by art critics and his personal attitude to painting as a specific medium, differing from other types of art. In these connections attention is drawn to one of the characteristic traits of the canvas Snowy Owl: the strikingly emphasised flatness of the part with the nocturnal predator and the written paper nailed to the wall. The author of this article proposes identifying this part as the motif of a “picture within a picture”, which Purkyně also worked with in other paintings (Politizující kovář [The Political Blacksmith], Okno [Window], Malířovo zátiší [The Painter’s Still -life]). On the basis of further analysis and the use of the theories of Walter Benjamin, Craig Owens and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh the Snowy Owl is interpreted not only as the depiction of reality, executed with masterly painting technique, but also as a hidden allegory, relating to the nature of modern painting.

The study of the example of Anton Jaszusch investigates how the artist and his work could become the instrument of power relations in the sense of the Foucault understanding of power. The context of Jaszusch’s work changed several times in the course of time and this also changed its interpretation. This paper analyses in detail the available documents (periodicals, catalogues, specialist articles and publications), in order to highlight these changes and the artist’s position as an instrument of power relations. It begins in the mid-twenties, when the exhibition of Jaszusch’s post-war set of paintings in Bratislava evoked conflict on the ‘Slovak nature’ of his work. The roots of this conflict lay in the new geopolitical situation in which the territory of Slovakia found itself after World War I. With the establishment of Czechoslovakia the status of Slovak citizens changed from one day to the next. Those who claimed Slovak nationality were transformed from one of the Hungarian minorities to become part of a majority state -forming ‘nation’ – the Czechoslovaks. The seeking of ‘Slovak nature’, defining themselves with regard to the Hungarians and Czechs, but also with regard to the rest of Europe, thus became a big theme after 1918, which naturally also applied to art. The study continues with the period of World War II, when Košice belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and Jaszusch was presented as a ‘Hungarian’ artist. The analysis of texts for exhibitions or newspaper articles showed that in this period there was emphasis on his landscape work and also scenes from village life, to which he devoted his attention in the second half of the thirties. This shift in interest was in keeping with the Hungarian cultural policy, orientated towards totalitarian Italy. The work is culminated by the period of the turn of the fifties and sixties, when the interpretation of Jaszusch’s work in the socialist period focused on seeking social themes and antibourgeois attitudes.

There are thirty -eight drawings deposited in the National Archive in Prague representing the members of the Habsburg dynasty, together with a letter from the Archduke Ferdinand II to his brother, King Maximilian II. The Czech Regent arranged for him, in July 1563, the handing over of documents offered by Hans Tirol, the former court builder. From the attached report it emerges that Tirol entered court service in 1552, but because of dissatisfaction with his work he was replaced in 1556 by Bonifác Wohlmut. Tirol further appears in official documents chiefly in connection with the exaction of settlement and accounting documents for the build- ings realised in Prague Castle. Tirol came to Prague from Augsburg, where he was linked with two codices, today kept in the Eton College Library and in the library of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Their painted decoration was carried out by the workshop of the Augsburg painter Jörg Breu the Younger. Although Tirol trained under Hans Breu the Elder, in Augsburg he was listed as a foreman bricklayer and later as a builder. The above -mentioned drawings are also the work of copyists from the workshop of Jörg Breu the Younger. Their models, reverse impressions of original drawings that have not been preserved, were used in the illustration of both codices and are dated 1544. In 1547 Tirol took over the leadership of the workshop after the death of Breu the Younger, and at that time they completed the codex from Escorial. The builder brought the drawings to Prague, where the first opportunity to offer them for use was the construction of the Hvězda Summer Palace (1555). The fifty niches on the ground floor, on the staircase and on the first floor of the summer palace strongly recall in shape the depiction of Ferdinand’s Ambrass collection in the printed catalogue of 1603. Although Tirol was not entrusted with the building of the Hvězda, he may have offered the afore-mentioned drawings as inspiration for its internal decoration. Does the catalogue intimate the planned placing of the Archduke‘s collection in the Hvězda? This did not happen because the Archduke, as the new ruler of the Tyrol, moved his residence and his collections to there.

Oriental-styled interiors were used as important additions for aristocratic residences in Central Europe beginning in the early 1800s. One unparalleled late realization on this theme is the decoration in the oriental salon on the ground floor in Liběchov, representing an unusual example of contemporary exotic mid-19th- -century Romanticism in the Czech milieu. Oriental architectural elements were not only used at Liběchov. They can also be found on other buildings in the vicinity of Liběchov: in Klácelka Cave or at Slavín in Tupadly, where the large tower has orientalizing details reminiscent of Arabic architecture. The ornamental decoration in the hall on the ground floor of Liběchov chateau also contains elements of Islamic arabesques linked to medallions with exotic flowers, however, the main painted section is typically devoid of Moorish decoration. It consists of three large panels representing Selling Cats in a Chinese Market, Chinese Festival for the Welcoming of Spring and Opium Smokers, complemented by three window panels with the motif of a Musician Playing a Zither for a Group of Ladies in an Exotic Garden, A Samurai with Two Swords and A Beautiful Chinese Lady. The painting of the three largest panneaux at Liběchov can most likely be attributed to Josef Navrátil, who made use of Thomas Allom’s steel engravings from the book China Illustrated. While working on the four-volume series with 128 original engravings, Allom was himself inspired by several older sources. Although he never visited China, his picturesque illustrations became significant iconographic sources for illustrated magazines from the mid-19th century. Two smaller paintings at Liběchov were inspired by illustrations from the book Personen aus Asien by Johann Georg Hecht and Henry Winkler. The source for the last painting is unclear. The concept of the decoration fully corresponds with the atmosphere which formed in the society of enlightened intellectuals around the former proprietor of the estate, Antonín Veith, in this purposefully-built regional center of culture and education in the first half of the 19th century and represents an interesting example of exoticism connected to the period’s interest in traveling and distant countries.

The Narodni dom was erected between 1897 and 1899 as the club house of the Spar- und Vorschussverein Posojilnica in what was at the time Marburg an der Drau in the region of Lower Styria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; today, this is the city of Maribor in Slovenia. The architectural plans were the work of Jan Vejrych, one of the most popular architects of the Czech Renaissance style of the period. According to Světozor this was the first time that a building constructed ‘in the style of the Czech Renaissance’ had been constructed ‘outside the countries of the Wenzel’s crown’. This contribution attempts to reconstruct the complex construction process that lasted, from the first idea to completion of the building, from 1890 to 1899 by evaluating archival documents from the Regional Archives (Pokrajinski arhiv) in Maribor and from the Architecture and Civil Engineering Archive of the National Technical Museum in Prague as well as contemporary press reports and memoirs. The plans for the building have attracted little attention so far, perhaps because only very few of them have been preserved in the local archives. Consequently, the drafts, construction drawings, and detail views stored in the National Technical Museum are a unique and, with some 140 documents, substantial source for researchers. The building is discussed in its historical context, passed on an evaluation of all accessible sources. Furthermore, responses to this unique Czech ‘export article’ in Lower Styria are explored. The results of the work presented here aim to complement existing knowledge about when the (undated) plans for the building were created and also serve as comparative material for Czech research on the work of Jan Vejrych. By elucidating the construction process and the accompanying political conditions the documents also offer material for comparative research on the ‘national houses’.