The National Gallery received a statue of the Kneeling Adoring Angel from Platzer
The polychrome and rich gold carving, lent to the National Gallery in 2013 from a private Czech collection, comes from the cemetery church of St. Wenceslas on Tuesday, which was administered by the Premonstratensian monastery in Teplá during the Baroque period. In the temple, the work adorned the tabernacle of the side altar of St. John of Nepomuk, whose complete sculptural decoration was acquired by the Prague workshop of Ignác František Platzer.
In addition to another adoring angel and small figures of angels, the altar also included the central statue of Jan Nepomucký, which is now in the monastery in Teplá. Platzer’s workshop was active in Bohemia for a short time at the time, and therefore probably considered the order for the sculptural decoration of the exceptionally rich altar, placed by the abbot of Tepier Hieronym Ambros and completed in 1752, to be a very prestigious affair.
The saddest story experienced this work of art at the end of the last century, when most of the original parts were lost during repeated thefts. He demonstrates how vandalized the thieves are the stump of the angel’s right arm, which originally carried a relief with one of the scenes from John’s legendary life. The kneeling adoring angel later appeared on the art market abroad in 2012 was offered by one of the auction houses in Vienna, even with the exact designation of the author and the correct provenance.
About the return of the Platzer statue to the Czech Republic taken care of by a private collector, who had the work restored at his own expense. NGP received the work with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
Ignac Frantisek Platzer
Ignác František Platzer was a sculptor and carver of the late Baroque. Whole sets of carvings and stone sculptures came out of his studio, for example for the castles in Dobříš and Hořín, for monasteries in Zbraslav and Teplá or for Prague Castle. The entrance gate in the first courtyard of the Castle is decorated by Platzer’s titans, to be done today in a copy from the early 20th century. Sculptures from Platzer’s workshop adorn many Prague palaces and churches.