The long-reconstructed Schwarzenberg Palace will belong to the Baroque

Prague - After nearly five years of reconstruction, the Schwarzenberg Palace in Prague's Hradčanské Square will open to the public on Friday. One of the most extensive Renaissance buildings in the city has been added to the exhibition spaces of the National Gallery in Prague (NG), which has prepared a new exhibition "Baroque in Bohemia" in it.
    After the reconstruction, the gallery has 4,000 square meters of exhibition space available. Repairs cost 262 million crowns, and an additional 12 million crowns were spent on interior modifications, said NG's economic deputy Miroslav Tajč to ČTK. In addition to restored ceiling paintings and other repairs, built-in structures made of glass and metal have been created in the building to provide logistics. The architectural design for the reconstruction is attributed to Tomáš Šantavý, with architects Pavel Kupka and Vlastimil Vagaday responsible for the new exhibitions.
    Many domestic institutions, churches, and orders have also contributed to the preparation of the exhibition by lending works. Visitors will find around 160 sculptures and 280 examples of late Renaissance and Baroque painting created from the late 16th to the end of the 18th century in the Czech lands across the three floors of the palace. Compared to the installation in the Jiřský Monastery, where Baroque art was previously located, the exhibition has an additional floor. Sculptural works, which are situated on the ground floor due to structural reasons, are separated from the paintings; however, each hall is complemented by a dominant sculpture.
    According to one of the curators, Tomáš Hladík, there will also be an innovation with a cabinet of art and curiosities being displayed for the first time - a phenomenon typical for collectors of the Baroque era. "A special feature is also that we can show how a painting and sculpting workshop operated in the 17th and 18th centuries - how a work was created from a sketch through to a model," the curator stated.
    The Schwarzenberg Palace, built between 1545 and 1567, has been used for exhibitions since 1910, when the then Technical Museum placed its collections there. In the second half of the 20th century, the palace housed an exhibition of the Military Historical Museum. The NG acquired the building in 2002.
    It has been under reconstruction since July 2003, and later it also acquired the neighboring Salmovský Palace. In it, art from the 19th century, particularly its first half, is expected to be exhibited in relation to the adjacent building. The NG also has an exhibition in the Šternberský Palace on Hradčanské Square, showcasing European art from antiquity to the end of the Baroque period.
    Czech Baroque art is moving to the Schwarzenberg Palace from St. George's Monastery, where an exhibition "Art of the 19th Century in Bohemia" is expected to open in May, which is intended for the aforementioned Salmovský Palace. Later, NG director Milan Knížák would like to return Czech Gothic art to Jiřský Monastery, which remains at risk of flooding in its current location at St. Agnes' Monastery.
    Medieval art had long resided in Jiřský Monastery, and discussions about moving the collection to St. Agnes' Monastery began in the early 1990s, completed at the end of the decade by then new NG director Knížák. There is now a project for its relocation back to the Castle. "We could start reconstruction as early as next year, depending on when and how much money Parliament allocates. Gothic art could be back at the Castle in three or four years," Knížák told ČTK. After the Gothic relocation, there should be sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries in St. Agnes' Monastery, which are currently located at Zbraslav Castle.