Name of Object:

Pontifical Ceremonial Jug and Basin

Also known as:

Jug and Lavabo

Location:

Governor’s Palace, Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic

Holding Museum:

Moravian Gallery, Brno

 About Moravian Gallery, Brno , Governor’s Palace, Brno

Original Owner:

Premonstratensian Abbey, Nová Říše

Current Owner:

Premonstratensian Abbey, Nová Říše

Date of Object:

1732

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Josef František Rossmayer (After 1700, Prague-1751, Olomouc)

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Silver (wrought, damascened and gilded)

Dimensions:

jug h: 22.4 cm, oval flap 9.9 cm x 8.1 cm; bowl 51 cm x 39 cm

Provenance:

Premonstratensian Abbey, Nová Říše

Type of object:

Applied arts

Place of production:

Olomouc

Description:

This oval basin, incised on its perimeter, is decorated with a strip of wrought ornamentation with festoons, grids, roses and a pair of putti heads. Its perimeter features a half-figure of St. John of Nepomuk, the patron saint of the person who commissioned the work. Opposite is a wrought oval label with a winged column representing the emblem of the Nová Říše Abbey, and engraved initials of the person who commissioned the piece, N.A /W./P.N./C.G. (Nobilis Abbas [Johannes Nepomucenus] Wyminko, Praepositus Neureuschensis /C.G.). Provost Jan Nepomuk Wyminko/Vejminko (c. 1683–1755) graduated from Hradisko, near Olomouc. He was provost of the Premonstratensian Abbey in Nová Říše from 1725 to 1732; in 1733 he was appointed the monastery's first abbot.
The jug and basin are part of a luxurious set that included ceremonial cruets and a chalice (not preserved). The works, both in their shape and decoration, are derived from Augsburg models (for example, those created by masters of the Biller and Drentwett families). The jug serves for purification at the mass: the priest uses it to wash his hands before taking the blood and body of the Lord. Any spilt water is caught in the basin.
Josef František Rossmayer probably took his apprenticeship in Prague and after journeyman's service abroad was appointed master in Olomouc in 1730. He made, among other things, candlesticks “in the Augsburg manner” for the main altar of the Sv. Kopeček Church, near Olomouc, a chalice with enamel figures of Christ's relatives for Brno cathedral and bindings for missals for the cathedral in Olomouc, in which he combined Augsburg and French models known from prints.

The jug and basin are part of a luxurious set that included ceremonial cruets and a chalice. The pieces, from an Olomouc workshop, are derived from Augsburg models both in shape and decoration (compare, for example, those created by masters of the Biller and Drentwett families).

How date and origin were established:

The objects feature four hallmarks, on the jug flap 1: an eagle in a circular label – Olomouc; 2: a partially blurred monogram FR in a cartouche – master's mark of Fr. Rossmayer; 3: partially blurred year in a label: 1732(?); on the bowl edge: 1–-3.; 4: re-hallmarked: 12.F in a rectangular label; re-hallmarked Brno from 1806–1809; engraved initials N.A /W./P.N./C.G.

How Object was obtained:

The set remains at and originated from the Premonstratensian Abbey, Nová Říše.

Selected bibliography:

Miloš Stehlík, in Ivo Krsek – Zdeněk Kudělka (ed) – Miloš Stehlík – Josef Válka, Umění baroka na Moravě a ve Slezsku, Prague, 1996, p. 600, cat. 301.
Dana Stehlíková, in Jiří Kroupa (ed), Dans le miroir des ombers. La Moravie a la age baroque 1760–1790, Brno–Paris–Rennes, 2002, pp. 266–267, cat. 105.
Dana Stehlíková, Encyklopedie českého zlatnictví, stříbrnictví a klenotnictví, Prague, 2003.

Citation of this web page:

Zora Wörgötter "Pontifical Ceremonial Jug and Basin" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;cz;Mus11;17;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 18