Name of Monument:

Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle, Brno

Also known as:

Governor’s Palace, Dicasterial Palace

Location:

Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic

Date:

1634; 1665–1675; 1731–1752; 1783

Artists:

Ondřej Erna, Jan Křtitel Erna (1625? Brno – 1698 Brno), Mořic Grimm (1669 Achdorf – 1757 Brno), František Antonín Grimm (1710–1784, Brno), Josef Tadeáš Rotter (1701 Opava – 1763 Brno), Jan Jiří Schauberger (?, before 1725 Vienna, active in Olomouc – 1744 Brno), Bernard Stettener, Josef Winterhalder Sr. (1702 Vöhrenbach – 1769 Vienna), Jakub Scherz (active in the third quarter of the 18th century, Brno), Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1724 Langenargen am Bodensee – 1796 Vienna), Josef Leonard Weber (? Svidnica – after 1766 Trnava), Franz de Paula Anton Hillebrandt (1719–1797, Vienna), Jan van der Furth, Ferdinand Pfaundler, Martin Anton Lublinský (1636 Lesnica – 1690 Olomouc), Jan Jiří Heintsch (1647 Kladsko – 1712 Prague), Jan Křtitel Spiess (? Sterzing – 1688 Brno), Antonis Schoonjans (c. 1655 Antwerp – 1726 Vienna)

Denomination / Type of monument:

Religious – Monastery

Patron(s):

Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle, Provost Ondřej Zirkl, Abbot Matthäus Pertscher, Count Jan Křtitel Mittrovský

History:

The monastery by the town walls was destroyed during the Hussite Wars and particularly during the siege of Brno by the Swedes in the 17th century. Its restoration was undertaken in 1665, when J. K. Erna started to build a new church nave. The reconstruction was completed in the first half of 18th century under the guidance of M. Grimm. In 1736 the monastery hosted one of the greatest religious festivities, the Coronation of the Miraculous Picture of the Virgin Mary (of Old Brno). After the dissolution of the Jesuit order locally, one of the monastery buildings became a grammar school, and became known among the best in the Habsburg monarchy. From 1778 the monastery also housed a university. In 1783 the monastery was transferred to Old Brno, the church became a parish church, and the monastery buildings were adapted for the state administration.

Description:

The horizontally spread frontage of the church, with its accentuated central axis, is an example of Italian mannerist architecture. The architects, O. Erna and J. K. Erna, were leading lights of Moravian architecture in the 17th century. Two-layered relief segmentation is supplemented by niches that hold statues by the itinerant Flemish sculptor, J. van der Furth who also created the statues for some of the side altars and worked for Brno Town Council. The original frontages differed according to the various functions of the monastery buildings, but these have been unified in modern times.

This medieval monastery, restored after damage sustained in the Thirty Years’ War, was reconstructed in the 18th century. It hosted religious festivals and also housed a grammar school and university. During the late 18th century, the buildings were used by the state administration. The late 17th-century appearance of the church is largely preserved. The high altar is adorned by a famous altarpiece by F. A. Maulbertsch. The contents of the monastery, partially the work of masters settled in Brno, were destroyed by bombing in 1945. Only the library (where later the geneticist J. G. Mendel studied) survived.

How Monument was dated:

Archive material (especially contracts, receipts and designs)

Special features

Archangel Raphael with Little Tobias

Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle

c. 1680

Ferdinand Pfaundler, Jan Krtitel Speiss (? Sterzing – 1688 Brno), Martin Anton Lublinský (1636 Lesnica – 1690 Olomouc)

Black gilded side altars pose a contrast, together with a pulpit, to the white vaulting decorated with simple stucco featuring vegetal motifs. The figure of Tobias personifies count Dietrichstein, whose coat of arms is on the boy’s shoulder. The guardian angel accompanies him on the journey to the divine light, leading him on the path of virtue and protecting him from sins and vices. M. A. Lublinský is also attributed with the replica of a picture by P. P. Rubens on the opposite altar.

St. John of Nepomuk

Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle

1700

Antonis Schoonjans (c. 1655 Antwerp – 1726 Vienna)

This painting by A. Schoonjans, an itinerant Flemish artist, is on a side altar covering an entrance to the Chapel of the Holy Cross. A court painter in Vienna and Berlin, he was active in Moravia where he worked in particular for the Znojmo Premonstratensians. The altar by J. J. Schauberger was removed from the chapel and now closes the former entrance to the chapel with a Thaumaturga.

The Revelation of St. Thomas

Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle

1762–1764

Josef Winterhalder Sr. (1702 Vöhrenbach – 1769 Vienna), Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1724 Langenargen am Bodensee – 1796 Vienna), Jakub Scherz (active in the third quarter of the 18th century, Brno)

The painting, depicting the revelation of the Apostle Thomas who doubted Christ’s resurrection is enhanced by the sculpted component of St. Augustine with a burning heart, which becomes almost part of the miraculous scene. The figure of St. Matthew is a crypto-portrait of Abbot M. Pertscher, under whom the monastery was completed and furnished. He was active during the Catholic Enlightenment and was among a small group of clergymen closely linked with the court of Maria Theresa.

Main portal

Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle

1742–1748

František Antonín Grimm (1710 Brno – 1784 Brno) – Josef Leonard Weber (? Svidnica – after 1766 Trnava)

The monastery was established in 1350 by Margrave Jan Jindřich of Luxembourg, brother of Emperor Charles IV. The church was meant to house the tombs of the Luxembourg dynasty, but only Jan Jindřich and his son, Jošt, are buried here; their statues flank the entrance to the prefecture. It is the only five-axis palace portal in Moravia.

Library

Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle

1745–1749

Josef Leonard Weber (? Svidnica – after 1766 Trnava), Bernard Stettener

Of the original monastery interior only the library, decorated by J. T. Rotter, has survived. The monks transferred the shelves, made by a lay brother, to their new monastery in Old Brno. Corner niches are filled with allegories of continents by Josef Leonard Weber, whose family were sculptors active in Trnava, Slovakia, and in Budapest and whose statues can be found in the Znojmo region in particular. Some of the library folios actually originated in the monastery. J. G. Mendel, a member of the Augustinian order and a founder of genetics, also studied there.

Selected bibliography:

Bohumil Samek, Umělecké památky Moravy a Slezska I, A-J, Prague, 1994, pp. 193–199.
Ivo Krsek –­­ Zdeněk Kudělka (ed), –­­ Miloš Stehlík –­­ Josef Válka, Umění baroka na Moravě a ve Slezsku, Prague, 1996, pp. 292, 296.
Lubomír Slavíček, in Friedrich Polleroß (ed), Reiselust & Kunstgenuss. Barockes Böhmen, Mähren und Österreich, Petersberg, 2004, p. 230.
Michal Šroněk, Jan Jiří Heintsch (1647–­­1712): malíř barokní zbožnosti, Prague, 2006.
Jiří Kroupa, Umělci, objednavatelé a styl. Studie z dějin umění, Brno, 2006, pp. 141–166.

Citation of this web page:

Zora Wörgötter "Augustinian Monastery, Hermits of St. Thomas the Apostle, Brno" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;BAR;cz;Mon11_F;7;en

Prepared by: Zora WörgötterZora Wörgötter

SURNAME: Wörgötter
NAME: Zora

AFFILIATION: Moravian Gallery in Brno

TITLE: Museum Curator and Local Co-ordinator

CV:
Zora Wörgötter studied Applied Painting at the Secondary School of Applied Arts, Video Art (Faculty of Fine Arts) at the University of Technology in Brno and Art History and Ethnology (Faculty of Arts) at Masaryk University, Brno. She has worked at the Moravian Gallery since 1997 and was curator of the Ancient Art Collection up until 2008. Specialising in Dutch and Central European painting of the 17th and 18th centuries, she has participated in the preparation of several exhibitions, catalogues and research projects in the Czech Republic and abroad, and published in the Moravian Gallery Bulletin, Opuscula historiae artium, and other journals. She is co-ordinator of the Art History Database www.ahice.net for the Czech Republic.
Copyedited by: Jiří KroupaJiří Kroupa

SURNAME: Kroupa
NAME: Jiří

AFFILIATION: Department of the History of Art (Faculty of Arts) Masaryk
University, Brno

TITLE: Professor

CV:
Professor Jiří Kroupa studied Art History, History and Sociology Masaryk University, Brno. He was a curator at the Kroměříž Museum and the Moravian Gallery in Brno before joining the staff at Masaryk University in 1988 (Head of the Department 1992–2002; Professor 1999 to present). His particular fields of interest are in the history of architecture, 18th-century cultural history and the methodology of art history. His long list of publications includes an edition on the architect Franz Anton Grimm and an essay “The alchemy of happiness: the Enlightenment in the Moravian context”. He was contributing editor for the volume Dans le miroir des ombres. Moravie a la age baroque. 1670–1790 (2002).
Translation by: Irma Charvátová
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: CZ 07