Messed-up Mánes work at the Prague Astronomical Clock: Prague will have it redone, appeals to restorers
For four years, the changes to the calendar descent in the lower part of the zodiac went unnoticed. You can’t see them with the naked eye from the street, but Milan Patka, an astrologer and member of the Old Prague Club, discovered them. According to his findings, a number of figures underwent a transformation during the creation of a new copy of the work of the painter Josef Mánes (1820-1871). Some restorers changed his face, hairstyle, hair color, skin, and even gender!
According to the mayor’s deputy Adam Scheinherr (Praha Sobě), Prague will have the botched work redone. “Currently, both the technical and artistic analysis of the current calendar and the preparation of the assignment of a new work are underway. For the new work, we are counting on the fact that renowned restorers of Josef Mánes’ work would be approached,” he told Blesk, adding that copies of Mánes’ work will be exhibited. “We also agreed with the Museum of the Capital City of Prague, right the current work and Číl’s copy from 1946 will be exhibited together with the original by Josef Mánes, so that every visitor to the museum can see the individual differences” added the deputy.
According to an earlier statement by the Prague municipality, Jirčík’s restoration work was carried out under the supervision of preservationists. “The work was carried out according to the project documentation and in accordance with binding opinions The National Institute of Monuments and the Department of Historic Preservation of the Prague Municipality. Everything was consulted with experts,” said municipality spokesman Vít Hofman.
However, the National Institute of Monuments stated that the relevant experts from the NPÚ were not informed about the making of the copy during the work. “So they could not influence its final form in any way, because they only saw the final result,” said NPÚ spokesperson Klára Veberová. But why didn’t the preservationists demand that the failed copy be redone after completion? “The essence of heritage care is the preservation of the original Mánes plaque, which is kept in the Museum of the Capital City of Prague. For this reason, the National Institute of Monuments did not require the remodeling of Jiřčík’s copy, as it is not a problem from the point of view of monument preservation,” explained Veberová.
According to the Ministry of Culture, all parties in the case are in doubt. “The resulting form of the third copy of the Mánes calendar was created a not very happy coincidence of inconsistent actions by all interested partiesthe owner of the cultural monument, the selected copyists and the person concerned, and the professional organization of state monument care, which in the future, and it is very important, should never have happened again,” stated the authority for iDnes.cz Petra Hrušová from the press department of the Ministry of Culture.
Calendar board
The calendar or monthly was created by Josef Mánes for the then restored Old Town Astronomical Clock in 1866. He wanted it to express the characteristic activity of the medieval countryside. Around the perimeter of the calendar plate is a narrow annulus with 365 rays, descriptive calendar data in the cutout for individual months. On the inside are the numbers of the days of the month and the so-called Sunday number. The monthly magazine contains medallions with scenes characteristic of the 12 months as well as depictions of the zodiac. The debatable copy of the calendar is already the second one controlled according to Mánes’ original.
The clock returned to the Old Town Hall building in 2018. Daniel Vitous
Changes to the Prague Astronomical Clock.
Author: Bulletin of the Club for Old Prague, Milan Patka