A breathtaking fresco from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel in which God the Creator is about to revive Adam with a touch. The mysterious smile of Mona Lisa and Botticelli’s first female act The Birth of Venus. The ideal of male beauty, Michelangelo’s David. These are just some of the treasures of the world’s cultural institutions, for which you would have to travel the world another time. Now you don’t have to. Their exceptional, detailed copies from Vienna, where they were admired by around half a million people, traveled to Prague’s Mánes gallery. There you can enjoy them up close and with your own eyes from March 1.
Botticelli’s (1444–1510) female nude The Birth of Venus is considered a milestone in art, created at the end of the 15th century, and the original is exhibited by a gallery in Florence. | Shine – Tonda Tran
“That’s what we were after,” the author of the exhibition, Austrian scenographer Manfred Waba, told Bleska. “So that everyone can really enjoy the works. For example, when you go to the Louvre for the Mona Lisa, there are 100 other people in that room with you, noise, clicking cameras. In front of you are two armored glasses and only behind them is a picture that you don’t have a chance to see,” he said. In Mánes, the most important thing awaits you from the legendary artists, as the works looked before the intervention of restorers, in real size and detailed execution. “We have here a giant painting of 8×6 meters, something that would have been impossible to produce 15 years ago. Some paintings are printed on real canvas, so an oil painting looks like an oil painting, a fresco like a fresco. It differs minimally from the originals,” added Waba.
How to copy David
The replica of David is the most valuable piece of the exhibition. How was it created? “We had it removed with a 3D scanner, it is cut out of polystyrene. Mainly so that we can transport it,” said Waba. “The original weighs tens of tons, ours roughly 200 kg. Inside it is reinforced with a metal rod. The details, the veins on the hands and the like, were created by a real sculptor for about four months,” he described. Then the artist covered the statue with a material similar to stone, used for example in shipbuilding. “We added marble dust to it, so the artwork on David is part of the top layer and gives the impression of a real piece of marble,” added Waba.
Check out footage from the show:
Idea over a cup of coffee
Manfred Waba also described to Bleska the moment when the idea for an exhibition of masters arose. “When my friends and I were in the Sistine Chapel, the crowd pushed us in front of us, and there was this amazing ceiling 22 meters above us. Poorly lit so the colors don’t pop. So we got nothing from that visit,” he recalled. “Then we sat in the cafe and agreed that the atmosphere was wonderful, but we didn’t really look at the paintings. That it would be amazing to remove them from the ceiling and show the viewer in their original size right before their eyes. And today we are also here, in Mánes,” he said.
Paradoxically, you wouldn’t enjoy the details, traces of time and brushstrokes in the hands of ancient masters as much in the original. For example, you can see parts of the decoration of the Sistine Chapel up close like this. | Shine – Tonda Tran
What, where, when, for how much
Masters of the Renaissance • Mánes Exhibition Hall, Masarykovo nábřeží 1, Prague 1 – Nové Město • When: 1 March to 30 May 2023, Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. • How much: Basic entrance fee 380 CZK, students and seniors from 65 years 320 CZK, children 6-14 years inclusive 250 CZK, family 2 adults + 2 children under 14 years 990 CZK, family 2 adults + 3 children under 14 years 1090 CZK .
You know that… • …two Mona Lisas were also found in Mánes, in addition to the one by Leonardo da Vinci, there was also a copy almost as old, apparently created by Leonardo’s apprentice next to the master?