Back to Saturday... left my introductory tour of Prague at the intersection of Charles University and Estates Theatre in the Old Town. I took so many photos of this scene. Day and night. Such a potentially beautiful scene but really hard to get the atmosphere and light right... Saw many people there with tripods so not just me... The theatre is the one Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in.
One of my better efforts - Uni on the left, theatre on the right
However, the real bonus for me was that the university had a photographic exhibition on profiling the student sit-ins of 1968 and 1989. One of their professors who was a keen amateur photographer with the confidence of the students took these records, hiding the exposed film and only exhibiting it now - confident at last that those in the pictures wouldn't be persecuted.
Very, very interesting and touching, disturbing. It is hard to describe the feelings these black and white images stired in my core. One that particularly moved me was one of young students 16 or 17yo surrounding Wenceslas statue demonstrating their solidarity against odds far beyond their influence. The contrast between their youthful, innocent faces and the reality of the odds of their battle brought a lump to my throat. Would I, as a teenager of that period, have had the maturity to act on my convictions if faced with such challenges and choices? I know I wouldn't have. Life in my teenage micro-environment was far too secure and protected to have developed such consciousness. Even those who marched against Joh's anti demonstration laws in the 70's faced little recourse compared to the truely life and death choices of these fresh faces.
On to more enjoyable and artistic persuits...
Next stop was the Museum of Czech Cubism in the House of the Black Madonna. Cubism seems to be a particularly popular genre in Prague. I remember being attracted to the style when studying art at school. It seems that only in Czech did they design buildings, public infrastructure (like lamp posts), furniture and houshold wares in the style. Other European artists restricted themselves to painting and drawing... In many ways in my opinion, it is a style that preluded art nouveau - there are many similarities, paticularly in archtitecture. Cubism was 1895-1925ish, Art Nouveau 1920's -1939. The Black Madonna itself is cubist inside and out. Stairwell, windows, fittings, etc champion the style so it is a fitting venue. The building also features the Grand Cafe Orient - a cafe presenting cubism in a retail environment. The cafe itself sat empty and locked up for 80 years and only started serving again in the last few years - with furnishings and fittings untouched since the early 1920's, the peak of cubisms reign.
House of the Black Madonna
Stairway in the House of the Black Madonna
Cubist Furniture
Cubist Homeware (for sale at AUD$300 per piece)
Sample of the Grand Orient Cafe
To get photos of the Cafe I treated myself to coffee. And it was Grand. Like walking back into 1920's. The espresso came on an individual 'silver' tray with a shot glass of cold water and hot milk on the side. Served by waiters in 'black and whites' with aprons and carrying multiple trays on each journey onto the floor. With the fittings ulight shades, chairs, tables and even coat hooks all original, it was easy to transport yourself back to the helicon days of the flappers.
Cubist apartment building
Next adventure of the day was the Museum of Decorative Arts. Tucked away in the Jewish Quarter, with the ladies loos overlooking the ancient Jewish Cemetry it was a hive of fascinating insight into Czech privileged domestic life. It was more like an ethnographic museum to me, but a fantastic collection never the less. Much less state treasure seems to have been looted from Prague than other European cities during various occupations.
The view from a loo
The building had been designed and built specially for the collection and included fantastic wall papers, ceiling decorations and stained glass. The first floor was a contemporary exhibition and my favourites were children's trikes with their front wheels replaced with kitchen chair legs - I'm going to try this for myself and try and make some very cute garden/verandah furniture - definitely complementary to Mark B's eclectic collection! And the love spoons - I've always loved spooning, and the artist bent a pair of spoons into a smooth snake-like shape that fit perfectly together. Simple, obvious, but overlooked by others...
Other floors profiled the domestic furniture, crockery and cutlery of the rich and shameless from 1500's onwards. Gold cutlery services; early knives and forks - when forks looked like serving forks of today and each person owned one set and carried them with them (fancy eat'n irons to go with the fancy eat'n table...); glassware; crystal (very common in this culture as lead crystal comes from Bohemia); silverware; pewter; clocks, decorative wear, etc.
There was a whole display of religious challaces gold and silver; encrusted with jewels. Their woven stoles, capes, head pieces, robes, alter clothes... embroidered with silver and gold thread. I can't imagine what such things would weigh. Many were several mm thick...
Another floor profiled early paper, graphic design, posters, hand written/copied books and texts from 5th century til late 19th century. The earliest were bibles and religious texts but there were first editions of printed books and pamphlets from 1600's, demonstrations of design techniques. I kept thinking of you Rachel - seventh heaven for a graphic artist.
And then yet another floor of buttons, boots, fabrics, clothes, embroidery, lace from 4th century til 1970's including wedding gowns and religious trobes. Hand woven, hand made, hand embroidered. People were very small 700 years ago - the shoes were TINY and the waists of the women... in fact the men's clothes were very small too - looked like 5'6" was av male and 5'3" women. Narrow shouldered and small footed. The lace in particular drew my attention - how did they manage such detailed work with only candle light to see by...
