This is our third visit to Prague, so there are previous blogposts on the Municipal House, one of the city's (and the world's) major sites:
As in previous instances of this sort of thing, I am alternatively embarrassed or impressed that, over the course of a decade, I have taken pretty much the same pix of the same things from the same angles. Draw such conclusions as you will. The pix from 2012 are relatively comprehensive, but not captioned. I guess I was in a hurry. So here I'll post the best recent shots, with captions, plus some new or improved ones. The 2012 out-takes include pix of the Municipal House's art nouveau and art deco HVAC registers, a topic ignored in most other accounts. In addition to Smetana Hall, for which it is best known, the Municipal House contains a dozen or more smaller halls, ladies' and gents' withdrawing room, now mostly used for important city affairs, ceremonies, weddings, receptions, etc. It is mostly these that the tour visits.
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| Full frontal of the Municipal House; opened in 1912 |
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Oddly, the tour actually gathers in the gift shop; but it is certainly
one of the better shops anywhere for art nouveau, art deco, Mucha,
and such |
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| The ceiling in Smetana Hall; click to enlarge |
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Smetana Hall is adorned with much art work, including
four large paintings of Music, Dance, Poetry, and Drama;
this is Poetry; for more pix of Smetana Hall, see the
previous post from a concert we attended a couple weeks
ago |
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| Still in Smetana Hall; I guess these count as caryatids.... |
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Now moving through the various halls...here, an
art deco aquarium |
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One of the ladies' drawing rooms/lounges; the coffee/espresso
machine was from 1903 |
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| Ceiling detail from one of the art deco/exotic rooms |
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Now in one of the larger halls, part of a huge panel entitled Life,
this section obviously "youth" |
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| "Midlife; yeah, I remember being in meetings like this... |
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| Overhead, "Retirement" |
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"End of Life"; forgot the name of the late 19th century painter;
captions are mine |
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Now in the very famous Mucha room, designed and executed
solely by the artist himself |
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By the time he got to doing this room, Mucha was well passed
his commercial art phase--for which he is most famous--and
well into his Slav Epic phase |
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An HVAC register not in my 2012 posts; designed by Mucha, are
we to assume? |
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| He also did sculpture |
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Haunting figures...just like the Slav Epic, which
we saw in 2010; ownership and display of the Slav
Epic is a matter of contention; it was in Prague
for several years, but is now back in Moravsik
Krumlov, where we saw it; call ahead... |
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| And presumably, he designed the huge curtain as well |
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| Art deco display case elsewhere I liked |
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| And another extraordinary HVAC register, not previously posted |
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| Typical chandelier |
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| Municipal House elevator |
1 comment:
Love the HVAC registers. No attention to detail left unchecked!
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