Inspection: All parties involved made mistakes in creating a copy of the Prague Astronomical Clock calendar

Prague – When creating a copy of the calendar of the Prague Astronomical Clock, all parties involved – the author, the city, and the preservationists – made mistakes, according to the Heritage Inspection. The position of the inspection, which is the supervisory body of the Ministry of Culture, was published yesterday by the Lidovky.cz server. The inspection stated that the author of the new calendar copy deviated from the original, and the city and preservationists did not adequately supervise his work. However, according to the inspection, no one faces penalties for the errors. The new form of the calendar has received criticism, with some condemning it as untrustworthy. The leadership of Prague wants to have a different copy made.

The calendar or monthly was created by Josef Mánes in 1866 for the then-restored Prague Astronomical Clock. Since 1882, a copy of the work has hung on the clock, while the original was placed in a museum to prevent damage from the weather. In 2018, painter and restorer Stanislav Jirčík created a new copy. This year, Milan Patka, a member of the Club for Old Prague, complained about the new version of the calendar and filed a complaint with the Heritage Inspection. According to subsequently published photographs, the new copy differs from the original in many details. Jirčík significantly altered the appearance of some figures, for example.

Jirčík defended himself by stating that he was supposed to make a so-called technological copy, where the task is not to create a faithful copy of the original work. "Even so, the Heritage Inspection believes that certain glaring changes to details made by Mgr. Jirčík, for which the reasons for the changes are not understandable and substantively justified regarding the interests of state heritage care, do not belong to a technological copy of the painting," states the inspection's position.

In the past, Jirčík stated that he was inspired by Mánes's preparatory drawings. "Only they depict the authentic handwriting. There is authentic handwriting somewhere in the painting, but somewhere it might have been damaged and altered by secondary interventions," he said. According to ministerial experts, Jirčík studied Mánes's original, stored in the museum, in detail. "That is also why it is difficult to understand why he did not adhere to a similar style of work in the details of faces and clothing," the Heritage Inspection wrote.

The form of the new calendar copy is, according to the inspection, "the result of inconsistent actions by all parties involved." Experts from the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) initially did not attend any inspections of the calendar copy work at all, and members of the restoration department of the institute did not participate in any inspection day with Jirčík. "They could first see the new copy in a photograph sent to all participants of the restoration process in an email dated September 21, 2018, which was also the day of the last inspection day. Seven days later, the town hall was ceremonially unveiled on September 28, 2018. Therefore, it wasn't even possible to comment on the copy at that time," the inspection stated.

According to the inspection's position, the Prague magistrate has no records from the inspection days during the creation of the copy and has only three photographs from a single visit to Jirčík's studio. The inspection also finds it surprising that the city, as the owner of the monument, explicitly commissioned the creation of a technological, rather than a faithful copy in the contract for work. However, according to the inspection's position, no one can be fined because it was not a restoration of the original, and the matter has already been subject to the statute of limitations.

The entire repair of the tower cost approximately 61 million crowns excluding VAT, of which about ten million crowns excluding VAT was related to the clock, spokesman for the magistrate Vít Hofman stated earlier. The new copy of the calendar of the clock was accepted by the previous leadership of Prague. The current city leadership, which took office at the end of 2018, wants to have the calendar replaced. "Currently, both a technical and artistic analysis of the current calendar is underway, and preparations for the assignment of new work are being made. We plan to invite recognized restorers of Josef Mánes's work for the new piece," said the deputy mayor for heritage care Adam Scheinherr (Prague Sobě) to the server.