SCULPTURES

This sub-collection is, as in the case of paintings, only a small addition to the main focus of the collections in the gallery. Several solitaire pieces complement the permanent exhibition and thus complete the view on art, in which spatial / dimensional creation has an important place.

Exceptional position within the sub-collection has been taken by the unpolychromed Altar of the Holy Cross called “Uhrovsky“ altar. It was created by Ignaz Rohrbach (1691–1747), a Silesian sculptor and carver, who came to Bohemia in the early 1820s and whose works ultimately shaped the image of the baroque cities of the Eastern Bohemia.

The Altar of the Holy Cross / “Uhrovsky“ Altar

The Altar of the Holy Cross from the castle chapel of the Feast of the Cross in Uhrov near Chotěboř is a brilliant example of the creative work of one of Braun's successors, a leading representative of the late baroque carving in Eastern Bohemia.

Its creator is a Silesian sculptor and carver Ignaz Rohrbach, who came to Bohemia in the early 1820s. There is evidence of Rohrbach’s stay in Běstvina (a village 25 km north from Havlickuv Brod) from 1725.

A year later, he settled in Chrudim and through marriage he earned an established sculpture workshop after John Paul Čechpauer, presumably with unfinished contracts. From there in the course of more than two decades he delivered his work to a large part of eastern Bohemia and the region along the River Elbe.

The unpolychromed altar with sculptures of Calvary was created around 1735 and its figural decoration is one of Rohrbach‘s masterpieces that is a unique example of his expressive sensibility and extraordinary modelling confidence of one of the successors of the Braun style.

The Altar of the Holy Cross was conceived as a high portal architecture composed of a pair of side pilasters with segmented composite capitals, decorated with volutes and acanthus ornaments. The top part was formed by a system of cranked, richly profiled ledges. Due to space limitations of the gallery it is not possible to expose the altar with all the original features.

In the region around Havlickuv Brod, Rohrbach participated also in decorating the Church of St. Andrew near Pohled (6 km east of Havlickuv Brod), in the Church of St. Lucy in Ježov near Ledeč nad Sázavou and even in Havlickuv Brod in the Dean Church of the Assumption, and especially in the interior of the Augustinian Monastery Church of the Holy Family where he worked intermittently from 1732 until his death.

The gallery obtained the Altar into its collections on 16th October 1996 by a purchase from its owner after the restitution. The finances were provided by the Ministry of Culture from the funds for purchasing items threatened by exports. After the restoration intervention, the altar was fitted into the new gallery building and incorporated into the permanent exhibition of the collections.