Art Collectors, Industrialists, or Representatives of the Nation? The Bohemian Aristocracy at the 1891 Jubilee Exhibition in Prague
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2026 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | The General Provincial Jubilee Exhibition of 1891 was a significant social event in Prague and throughout Bohemia. It was the first large-scale exhibition to replicate the world exhibitions model on a smaller scale with a local focus. More importantly, it showcased the Czech nation’s capabilities and progress within the multi-ethnic monarchy. While the Bohemian nobility played a crucial role in organising the event and participated as exhibitors, their contribution is often overlooked in public memory. This paper aims to present the diverse ways in which Bohemian noble families presented themselves to the public during the exhibition. Many families contributed by landing works from their collections to two main artistic parts of the event: the Art Exhibition, which focused on contemporary Czech art, and the Retrospective Exhibition, featuring historical artifacts and artworks from earlier periods. In addition, the noble families also presented the management of individual aristocratic estates in the form of separate pavilions designed by prominent Prague architects. In some cases, these economic displays were accompanied by exhibitions of contemporary arts and crafts (glass, cast iron, etc.) produced in family-run factories. The paper therefore seeks to evaluate the threefold role played by certain noble families at the Jubilee Exhibition – as art collectors, commissioners of architectural works, and producers of objects in the applied arts industry. Were these complex, sophisticated presentation strategies, or were they somewhat separate segments? What objects did individual noble families exhibit, and what pavilions did they commission? What were their intentions – how did they want to present themselves to the hundreds of thousands of visitors from diverse social backgrounds who visited the exhibition? We are interested in how the aristocratic exhibitors perceived the exhibition as an important symbol of Czech national identity, with which only some of them identified. At the same time, we also examine how the aristocratic displays were mirrored within the nationalist narrative that the Jubilee Exhibition created in Czech collective memory and in art history scholarship |
| Související projekty: |