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Espace Sculpture

Bohumil Kafka Jan Zizka monument Victor Verney

Art et pouvoir Art and Power Number 89, Fall 2009

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/8827ac

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Publisher(s) Le Centre de diffusion 3D

ISSN 0821-9222 (print) 1923-2551 (digital)

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Cite this review Verney, V. (2009). Review of [Bohumil Kafka: Jan Zizka monument]. Espace Sculpture, (89), 45–46.

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Bohumil KAFKA, Jan Zizka monument

Victor VERNEY

The sculptor represents the transition photograph shows its sculptor, lems with Medek and others in the horse sculpted by Kafka was a Noric, from une pose to another ...In his work Bohumil Kafka, working inside the artistic elite, who favored a distinctly an Austrian breed— incendiary dema- we still see a part of what was, and we horse's head seated on a bench and Czech expressionism. Medek, who goguery in a country only recently discover a part of what is to be. accompanied by an assistant.' considered himself an art connoisseur freed from three centuries as a vassal -Auguste RODIN Although Kafka was no relation to his (His father-in-law, Antonin Slaviàek. state of the Austro-Hungarian Empire." contemporary, the famed writer was an important Czech painter), was Udrzal blithely ignored the historical On July 14,1420, Jan Zizka, the Franz, the story of this statue's effectively Czechoslovakia's cultural fact that Zizka and his troops routinely iconic Czech military hero of the reli­ creation — a tortuous, sixty-eight-year czar. However, the Cubist and used captured Austrian and German ordeal — could serve as material for Expressionist proposals he and the steeds/This was, in all likelihood, a gious wars that marked Bohemia's an absurdist novel of bureaucracy run culturati favoured were overwhelm­ manufactured pretext: the Republican Hussies Revolution, led an unlikely amok. ingly rejected by the Czech middle Party included many Catholics who defence of Prague against Holy First conceived in 1882, thirty-one class, which much preferred tradi­ did not want any statues built years passed before any serious action tional realism.'' honouring Zizka, a hero of the early Roman Emperor Sigismund and was begun. In 1913, competitive Kafka drew inspiration for his Protestant Reformation. However, 80,000 knights intent upon proposals were solicited for a Zizka design from paintings of Zizka by Udrzal died the following year, Medek destroying the city and its residents. monument. Results were inconclusive: Mikolâs Ales, a beloved Czech artist. reversed his decision, and Kafka was allowed to continue working.8 The key battle occurred on Vftkov no first place was awarded, and Despite Kafka's credentials, talent, second place was bestowed on three and the suitability and popular appeal He had the mould ready by 1941, Hill, a long, high, narrow ridge proposals, none of which were even of his source material, progress finishing just as Czechoslovakia was between the city's present-day Karlin partially used. Preliminary construc­ remained fitful. His proposed design overrun by the Nazis. As a symbol of and Zizkov neighborhoods. For the tion began in 1920, but subsequent received lukewarm approval from anti-German Slavic nationalism, the competitions in 1924 and 1927 also Medek's committee, which did not mould became the object of a past six decades, the most visible failed to yield a winner. want a baroque statue resembling vigorous search by the Gestapo. It and reminder of Zizka's legacy has been During this time, veterans of the those in Berlin and Vienna. After the scale model were cut into pieces an enormous bronze statue of the Czechoslovak Legions who had fought consulting historians and hippologers, and successfully hidden in a variety of with Russia against the Austrians Kafka had completed a full-size scale locations around Prague, including one-eyed general watching over during World War I began lobbying for model by 1937. However, Medek then coal cellars. After World War II, the Prague from atop the hill — an a national monument in their honour abruptly told him to cease work, due pieces were put back together, and artistic representation of medieval to serve as a backdrop to the Zizka largely to Frantisek Udrzal, who had the statue was cast. Kafka would not memorial. Rudolf Medek, a prominent been minister of defense and prime see his completed work in place, military history with continuing Legionnaire, played a key role. On minister during the 1920s and '30s. passing away after a long illness on contemporary resonance, emblem­ November 8.1928, the tenth anniver­ Udrlal's Agrarian Party lost power November 29,1942. ' atic of the full sweep of modern sary of Czechoslovakian indepen­ in 1932 and reformed as the Kafka's statue was ceremoniously dence, the memorial's cornerstone Republicans. Three years later, Udrzal Czech history. erected on July 14,1950 within a far was laid, and it was completed three entered the Senate, considered a different ideological context than that Czech journalist Christian Falvey years later. Proposals were again repository for politicians at the tail- of its initial conception. Following vividly articulates why this is not just solicited for a Zizka statue, and end of their careers. their 1948 coup d'etat, the commu­ another statue of "some grand-looking Bohumil Kafka was among those Nonetheless, Udrlal still wielded nists commenced an Orwellian fellow with a suave beard in full responding. influence—especially with Medek, rewriting of Czech history. Stalin's regalia, trotting out of battle into Kafka was born February 14,1878 whose career he had advanced as his party line was amenable to Zizka as history on his stately steed." Rather, in Nova Paka. After studying sculpture former boss. Udrlal protested that the a secularized symbol of Pan-Slavic he notes, Zizka "is poised in a and stonemasonry, he worked moment of murderous discretion, a as a stonecutter and ornamen- deadly Slav glaring down some poor talist in Dresden. Kafka crusader with his one good eye as he attended Prague's Academy of brings his mace to bear." Its four legs Arts and Crafts and then firmly planted, Zizka's war-weary studied at the École Nationale horse, veins jolting out of its muzzle Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, also and legs, gasps before its next in Prague. In 1904, the young onslaught. "The monument is so sculptor went to Paris and fell Bohumil KAFKA Jan kinetic and realistic," he adds (slyly under the influence of Auguste Zizka monument, ca. referencing the prevalent irreligiosity Rodin. After sojourns in Rome, 1950. The statue itself is of today's Czech Republic '), "that you Venice, Strasbourg, Milan, 9 meters high; height almost find yourself waiting for its Zurich, and London, he including pedestal is 22 seventeen tons of bronze to ... start returned to Prague in 1916, meters. Prague. Photo: Victor Verney. tearing down the hill to massacre the where he was appointed heathens in the bus station below."2 professor at his alma mater. The world's third-largest bronze Although his early work was equestrian statue, it stands nine distinctly Art Nouveau in style meters tall on .i thirteen meter-high and spirit, his statues took on pedestal.' Zizka's head alone weighs an increasingly traditional char­ 109 kilograms, and a contemporary acter. This would create prob­

ESPACE 89 AUTOMNE/FALL 2009 45 population identify themselves with Roman Catholicism. Christian Falvey, 'Things to Think About on Vitkov Hill", Radio Prague, Feb. 22,2009. John Sherrill Housers Don Juan de Oriole in El Paso (c 2007) and Enrico Chiaradia's Victor Emmanuel II in Rome (c. 1906) are both over 11 meters high. Billboard detailing the the Zdenek Hojda and Jiri Pokorny, Pommkya Vitkov monument's renova­ Zapomniky [Monuments and Forgettings] tion. February 22,2008. (Prague: Paseka, 1996), 155. Prague. Photo: Victor Marie Klimsovâ, "Czechoslovak Public Verney. Sculpture and its Context from 1945 to the 'Realizations' Exhibit 1961," in Soviet-style bas-reliefs were Figuration/Abstraction: Strategies for Public removed from the Vitkov was very badly damaged due to museums, Kafka's creation and Zizka's Sculpture in Europe 1945-1968, ed. Charlotte monument's doors as part specifics in the original design. "There legacy will be reintegrated into the Benton (Farnham: Ashgate, 2004), 35-6. of the site's renovation. Prague. February 22,2008. are two problematic areas," Ksandr larger context of Czech history — as Oklahoma State University, Department of Prague. Photo: Victor explained, "first, the horse's legs, freely constructed by the Czechs them­ Animal Science, "Noric," Verney. which contain support structures, saw selves. •>; http://www.ansi.okstate. a lot of condensation and freezing of edu/breeds/horses/ Victor VERNEY grew up in Buffalo, New York, noric/indexhtm (accessed Apr. 17,2009). brotherhood; the official Marxist inter­ water over the years, cracking the before serving four years of sea duty in the U.S. Christopher Gravett, German Medieval Armies pretation posited Zizka as the leader sculpture's surface. The other is that Navy and earning a graduate degree in American of a proletarian revolution and the the statue itself is made up of thirty- literature at the State University of NY/Buffalo. 1300-1500 (Oxford: Osprey, 1985), 16. Hussites as communists avant le mot. nine separate bronze plates, joined by Formerly a college professor and newspaper editor, Jaroslava Gregorova, "Bohumil Kafka," Radio he is now a full-time writer residing in Des Moines, In 1953, Klement Gottwald, steel screws from 1950 which are now Prague, Feb. 23,2006. Iowa. His published articles include pieces for Czechoslovakia's first communist pres­ heavily rusted." After repairs, Ksandr Kimberley Ashton, "New Life Planned for said, the statue is to be returned to its Military History magazine on Lord Byron and Leo Vitkov Hill," Prague Post, May 30,2007; ident, died. The Monument was given Tolstoy; his book Warrior of Cod: Jan Zizka and appointed spot." "National Memorial at Vitkov," Prague.net, a macabre Soviet-style twist, the Hussite Revolution was recently released by http://www.prague.net/vitkov-monument becoming a venue for the public On October 8, 2005, Czech Prime Frontline Books. display of Gottwald's (poorly) Minister Jiri Paroubek held a cere­ (accessed Dec. 4,2008). Derek Sayer, The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech embalmed remains and those of two mony at Zizka's statue marking the NOTES History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, successors. Bas-reliefs celebrating class 58V anniversary of the Hussite 1. According to a 2001 census, 59% of Czechs 1998), 276-7). warfare in the approved socialist- general's death. His remarks suggested considered themselves agnostics, atheists, Jan Velinger, "Vitkov Memorial to House realist style were added to the a new ideological context for Zizka's nonbelievers or unaffiliated with any orga­ 10 Museum Dedicated to Czechoslovakia's building's massive doors. victory. Paroubek expressed concern nized religion. The 2005 Eurobarometer poll Turbulent History" July 31, 2007. After communism's fall in 1989, about government corruption, shady found that 35% of Czechs stated they did not Kristina Aida, "Praguescape: Monumental Vftkov Hill and Zizka's statue business practices, and organized believe in God, spirit, or life forces and only Transformations," Prague Daily Monitor, languished as little-visited reminders crime plaguing the Czech Republic 19% claimed to believe in God, surpassing in Nov. 13,2007. of the recent totalitarian past. The following the disappearance of Europe only Estonia's 16%. These statistics are remains of Gottwald, et al were communism. Paroubek held up distinct from Slovakia, where 69% of the reburied elsewhere. Nonetheless, an Zizka as a moral exemplar who aftertaste lingered. Most adult Czechs fought selftessly against institu­ could not consider the Monument tional greed and immorality. LI DO V Ê WOriWY lltKÛV rONNlK Artist Antonin PELC mocked "We Czechs, who have an mix coftnu urn without thinking of Gottwald's horrifi- the endless arguments by unshakeable Hussite belief in cally mummified body, while the bas- Czechoslovak politicians about reliefs made it one of Prague's most human brotherhood, dignity what Bohumil Kafka's statue hated landmarks. Minor renovations and social justice in the very should look like. On the left, he were undertaken in the 1990s, but the foundations of our traditions," satirizes the self-interested monument's future use and owner­ declared Paroubek, "must stand suggestions of Jiri Stribrny ship remained murky. up to ... aggressiveness and (using it to promote his own malice impelled by the thirst business) and Konrad Heinlein, In May 2007, the Czech National for money."12 and he ridicules Frantisek Museum, which had taken possession en-ial nnn Ktfka: Saw tMrui-ftJk, u ikmnuriit. /» pro/ttc* Wka rtnu/r paiilhr a stnilor (/rfrlat bude loOvflr p. Urdzal's preference for a saintly of the Vitkov memorial site seven Vitkov's transformation is to AJMtu * Prie* , IHIwfch nmlnitfc Zizka carrying a Bible. The years earlier, began a massive be marked by an opening cere­ VratrneievijkriaiecatekSO.lei. Vprosincl ]032pcutNlluKi/kovti larger cartoon at right sarcasti­ sunt irtUti kanfe* hlppologlcka, umttetki IMestrovK, Svitkntk» Can$10 million, two-year reconstruc­ mony planned for October 28, a Zeivorkal i lustoncki (UtWrtek, Guth, Kvetl i doporuclly predlcieny cally suggests that the Minister nlvrlt k proveden!. S Kilkovt nyla uzavfena denntuvnf smlouva. i sochaf il moftl zdlnlrvc oddechnoin. Tik k*dnoduche 10 vsek nebylo Ul rak ir of Commerce might instead tion project. Prague temporarily 2009, the 91" anniversary of vu Kiftftv spot i odbotovou organized uroekù, u ktrre si ne nel reno kotegove a koskurenu tteiovall pro Odelné ponitenf etickfch laud. prefer a statue that could serve lost one of its dominating features as Czechoslovakia's independence NelakUvnell vyitupoval protl Kilkoel Karel Dvorak, autor kvaatnho nl vrhu Ztiaovy scare i toku 1925, ocenen«ho v loutrC ifetf cteesv. as a money-making refresh­ restorationists dismantled the from Austria-Hungary. As a fron­ Nikonec Dyl KiOci i nircenl i unfair (ednanl sice ofUien. cekal Kd viak spor trite upometll. Tentokrat netlo o nie menUho nel o uenèkerU ment stand. From: Pomnikya weather-beaten statue. According to tispiece to an envisioned la potalmo polttkke] vyfelenl Zlikovy Rgury. Doha null uiavrenlm smkntvy s bfeinem 1037, kdy Kalka dokonul Zapomniky. Karel Ksandr, the National Museum's "Museum Mile" featuring deputy director, its inner construction national, railroad, and military

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