Works of Art on Stamps: Karel Spillar (1871 - 1939)

Catalogue number	0663
Date of issue	10.11.2010
Face value	30 CZK
Print sheets	4 stamps
Size of picture	50 x 40 mm
Graphic designer	Karel Spillar
Engraver	Martin Srb

Karel Spillar (1871 - 1939): Spring, 1912, National Gallery in Prague.
The Czech painter and graphic designer Karel Spillar studied with Frantisek Zenisek at the Prague's Academy of Arts (1885-1893). He was one of the members of the Manes Union of Fine Arts and a teacher (after 1913) at the Academy of Arts. His early works were influenced by his stay at Paris and expressionism (1902-1908), other styles that found a way into his works included neo romanticism and the symbolism of Art Nouveau. His decorative works followed the paintings by Puvis de Chavannes (Portrait of a Lady in Black, 1899; Shepherds, 1914). Spilar's best known masterpiece is his decoration of the Municipal House in Prague, including the mosaic Homage to Prague (1909) above the entrance and the paintings in Smetana's Hall representing an allegory of Music, Dance, Poetry and Drama (1910) in the Art Nouveau symbolic style. He was the author of a number of other decorations, such as those in the lounge of the Central Hotel in Prague. Spillar was also the author of lithographic works, posters, small graphic designs.

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Works of Art on Stamps: MilosJiranek (1875 - 1911)

Catalogue number	0662
Date of issue	10.11.2010
Face value	26 CZK
Print sheets	4 stamps
Size of picture	40 x 50 mm
Graphic designer	Miloš Jiránek
Engraver	Václav Fajt

Milos Jiranek (1875-1911): Piskari (Sand Bargemen), 1910, Moravian Gallery in Brno.
Milos Jiranek, also known as Vaclav Zednik, was a Czech painter, art reviewer, writer and translator. His paintings were mostly influenced by impressionism. He studied at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. His teachers at the Prague's Academy of Arts were M. Pirner and V. Hynais. Jiranek was one of the leaders of the generation of founders of Czech modern art emerging in the course of 1890s. The main features of the new generation were their critical approach to the servitude of art with respect to ideology; calling for the creative freedom of individuals and for autonomous art thinking. The struggle for emancipation of Czech art life found its expression in the establishment of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts (1887) and the art magazine Volne smery (1896).
Milos Jiranek's work as a painter remained for a long time in the shadow of his activities as an art reviewer and organizer. The quality of his graphic art, tragically ended by his premature death at the age of 36 years, has not yet been fully appreciated. The series of his masterpiece White Studies is an original synthesis of the impressionist method with an intimist atmosphere, with a well-balanced composition of colours and shapes.


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Works of Art on Stamps: Karel Skreta (1610 - 1674)

Catalogue number	0661
Date of issue	10.11.2010
Face value	24 CZK
Print sheets	4 stamps
Size of picture	40 x 50 mm
Graphic designer	Karel Skreta
Engraver	Milos Ondracek

Karel Skreta (1610-1674): Paris and Helen, around 1672 National Gallery in Prague
Karel Skreta, one of the major 17th century Czech baroque painters, was born to a well-to-do Protestant family, with the noble predicate 'ze' (his full name being Skreta Sotonovsky ze Zavoric). Members of the family, originally from Olejnice in South Bohemia, lived in Prague and Kutna Hora. Karel's father Konrad died when Karel was only three years old. The little boy was placed into the care of his uncle, Pavel Skreta, who, following his brother's will, enabled his young nephew to obtain a broad humanistic education in the Prague's Tyn school. Young Karel spoke Latin, German, Italian and French, and this knowledge proved very useful in the young man's adult life.Skreta's likely teachers of painting were artists at the royal court. After his return to Prague in 1638, he became one of the most popular local painters and gradually one of the major Czech early baroque painters. Skreta's painting shop, one of the largest in Prague, employed a number of apprentices and journeyman painters. His famous works include outstanding portraits, altar paintings, drawings and illustrations. Mythological themes rarely appeared in his works. His later works were based on the chiaroscuro technique. Skreta was the author of the Saint Wenceslas series of paintings for the Augustinian Monastery at Zderaz in Prague's New Town (1641), numerous altar paintings for major Prague churches (St. Thomas and St. Nicholas at the Lesser Town, St. Stephen, Virgin Mary before Tyn) and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary church of the Cistercian Monastery in Plasy.
In countless court proceedings, Skreta eventually won back almost all of his family's property that had been confiscated after they fled the country. He died in 1674 in Prague as a very rich man.

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Christmas - Zlutice Hymn Book

Catalogue number	0664
Date of issue	10.11.2010
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	50 stamps
Size of picture	40 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Fabián Puléř, Zdeněk Ziegler

The 1558 Zlutice Hymn Book is a rare renaissance parchment folio (sized 63x40x16cm, weighing 28kg), containing 471 sheets of Czech utraquist liturgical texts for the divine services and hymns, decorated with remarkable paintings. The book was ordered by the Zlutice town councillors for the local literary brotherhood, for the considerable expense of 283 threescore of Meissen groschen, of which the sum of 23 threescore was contributed by the lord of the estate. Jan Táborský of Klokotská Hora, owner of a painting shop in Prague, used the following words to appreciate their generosity: "Eager to sing, the people of Zlutice ordered costly scripts to be made and written in a reasonable (i.e. Czech) language." The author of the letters (Czech bastarda) and notation was Vavrinec Bily. The book was illuminated by the famous painter Fabian Puler of Usti nad Labem. The 16 miniature paintings in the initial letters and arabesques are particularly well appreciated. They contain the coats of arms of Zlutice and each of the donators and guilds, scenes from the Old and the New Testaments as well as from the life of the townspeople (feasts, bull slaughtering, Sunday rest), paintings of famous Czech historic persons (Saint Wenceslas, John Hus, Jerome of Prague; the two latter ones being erased in the 17th century) as well as certain of the donators, both townspeople and lower noblemen from the neighbourhood.
The Hymn Book, until 1977 deposited in the Prague's City Museum, is now a part of the collections of the Museum of Czech Literature in Prague. The City Museum keeps a replica of the book.

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