Name of Object:

Archangel Gabriel

Location:

Governor’s Palace, Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic

Holding Museum:

Moravian Gallery, Brno

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

Original Owner:

Saint Wenceslaus Church, Olomouc

Current Owner:

Moravian Gallery, Brno

Date of Object:

c.1740

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Jan Antonín Richter (1712, Glogów-1762, Olomouc)

Museum Inventory Number:

E 693 a

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Wood, gilding

Dimensions:

H: 135.5 cm

Workshop / Movement:

Olomouc

Provenance:

Saint Wenceslaus Church, Olomouc

Type of object:

Sculpture

Period of activity:

First half of the 18th century

Place of production:

Olomouc

Description:

The sculpture has a counterpart in a statue of Archangel Raphael, also in the collections of the Moravian Gallery. The angels were part of a Marian altar shaped as a column aedicule retable. The elegance of the columns and gracefulness of the individually approached movements stem from a free and full projection of the figures into space, if somewhat limited by the original altar architecture. In the dynamic meticulously modelled gown, the artist differentiated the fineness of the under-garment wrapping the body and worked into tiny folds, from the heavy folds of the upper attire encircling the figure in generous, carved-in wraps, creating a sweeping, melodious movement. The gesture of the angel’s right hand symbolises the Annunciation, the left hand is shaped to hold a lily, a symbol of the immaculate conception.
Gothic churches in Bohemian and Moravian towns, refurbished in the Counter-Reformation period, were “re-Gothicized” in the late 19th century. Like this sculpture, their interior equipment passed on to smaller churches and museums. This is one of only a handful of preserved works by Richter, a remarkable but lesser-known sculptor from Olomouc. He created three altars for the Dome of St. Wenceslas in Olomouc (later transferred to Náměšt na Hané) and designed a monstrance for the church. Together with Josef Winterhalder Sr., he worked in Jan Sturmer’s Olomouc workshop.

The gesture of the angel’s right hand symbolises the Annunciation, the left hand is shaped to hold a lily, a symbol of the immaculate conception. The sculpture is one of only a handful of known works by Richter, a remarkable sculptor from Olomouc.

How Object was obtained:

The sculptures are a part of what remains of the Baroque-period interior of the Dome of St. Wenceslas, Olomouc the major proportion of which was removed during “re-Gothicization” in 1893.

Selected bibliography:

Miloš Stehlík, Sochařství vrcholného baroka na Moravě, in Dějiny českého výtvarného umění II/2, Prague, 1989, p. 538.
Vlasta Kratinová, in Jiří Kroupa (ed), Dans le miroir des ombres. La Moravie a la age baroque 1760–1790, Brno–Paris–Rennes, 2002, p. 175, cat. 52a.

Citation of this web page:

Zora Wörgötter, Vlasta  Kratinová "Archangel Gabriel" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;cz;Mus11;31;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., Vlasta Kratinová
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 32