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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