Staletá Praha 36, 2/2020, 37-59 | DOI: 10.56112/sp.2020.2.02

Medieval Glass in the Collection of Vojtěch Lanna and in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

Helena Brožková, Hedvika Sedláčková

Uměleckoprůmyslové museum v Praze, ulice 17. listopadu 2, CZ-110 00 Praha 1

The paper deals with glass from the 10th - 1st half of the 16th centuries collected by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (hereinafter UPM). A small assemblage of medieval glass, numbering 53 artefacts at present, was created from the very beginning of the museum's founding in 1885. Both container and flat glass is represented, circular window panes, stained glass, glass paste and underpainting. The earliest objects, referred to as Islamic glass, come from Egypt or the wider Eastern Mediterranean; the later ones are mostly of German origin. A specific section initiated by Dagmar Hejdová, documents a typical Bohemian production of the High Middle Ages based on archaeological finds. Almost half of the museum's assemblage was donated by Vojtěch Lanna. However, his original collection of medieval glass was much larger, according to the 1911 catalogue of the Rudolf Lepke company in Berlin, where also other materials of the collection were auctioned. Three of the glasses sold from Lanna's collection were found in other institutions.

Keywords: Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague - Islamic glass - medieval glass - Vojtěch Lanna - Dagmar Hejdová

Grants and funding:

Příspěvek byl připraven za finanční podpory Ministerstva kultury v rámci institucionálního financování dlouhodobého koncepčního rozvoje výzkumné organizace Uměleckoprůmyslové museum v Praze (MK000023442).

Published: December 15, 2020