Anyone who has ever passed from Letenská plana to Prague Castle has certainly come across an unusual building, evoking an ancient temple. This unmissable object with the monument to JA Comenius in the foreground was built according to the own design of one of the most original Czech artists of the 20th century, sculptor František Bílek. The villa from 1911, which used to be the artist's home as well as his studio, now houses a rich exhibition of his works managed by the Prague Capital Gallery. The villa is open to visitors all year round every day except Monday and is definitely worth a visit.
František Bílek was born in 1872 in Chýnov near Tábor to the family of the wheelwright Josef Bílek. His brother Josef was a designer and builder, and his second brother Antonín, who graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts in Prague, also became a sculptor and painter. František originally studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Max Pirner, but due to a congenital eye defect, he began studying sculpture at the School of Arts and Crafts in Prague under Professor Josef Maudro. Thanks to the scholarship of patron Vojtech Lanna, he went to study at the private Colarossi art academy in Paris. Here he met the painter Zdenka Braunerová, but also other Czech artists such as Alfons Mucha, Ludek Marold or Vojtech Hynais. However, Bílek was not looking for an overly artistic bohemian society, he was founded very spiritually. He even later left Colarossi's academy because he came to the opinion that the school no longer had anything to offer him in his own work. His first works were created in Paris, inspired by his deep religious feelings about Golgotha - the mountain of skulls and the Plowing is the punishment for our guilt. Unfortunately, the scholarship commission, led by the sculptor Josef Václav Myslbek, did not accept these works, and Bílek's scholarship was suspended. Patron Vojtech Lanna even refused to accept Orba as a gift from Bílek. The artist returned home and completed a one-year military service in Jindřichov Hradec. After returning from military service, he built a sculpture studio according to his own design in his native Chýnov. Bílek created alone. Despite the fact that today we talk about him as a representative of symbolism and art nouveau, he himself deliberately avoided social life and inclusion in any of the artistic directions or styles throughout his life. He claimed that his works are not art but prayers. In 1902, he married his wife Berta Nečasová and they moved to Prague. Before they built their own villa near Hradčany in 1911, they lived in several different places in Prague. After the German occupation in 1939, they moved again, this time permanently, to Chýnov, where he is also buried under his monumental statue Prayer over the Graves. In the southern part of the Prague villa, mainly sculptural works and figurative compositions are exhibited, so typical of his work with their organic form, expressive silhouettes and even pathetic gestures. In the northern part, there is a two-story apartment of his family with smaller sculptures, graphic works and original furniture according to the artist's own designs. In the studio, the wooden sculpture Future Conquerors, which Bílek created between 1931 and 1937, will probably attract the most attention. This work is an allegory of the spiritual senses, and its individual parts are named Conscious, Sense of Culpable Disease, Creator, Spiritual Sight and Hearing, and Spiritual Smell and Taste. The future conquerors received the patron Leopold Katz Award from the Academy of Sciences and Arts. Another important work, the plaster Moses from 1905, created as part of the cycle of the spiritual history of mankind The Journey, became the model for the bronze statue of Moses, placed in 1937 in front of the Old Synagogue in Josefov, Prague. The statue was melted down during the occupation in 1940 and recast only after the Second World War in 1946. The patinated plaster also includes a work from 1895, The Likeness of Our Time, which was created in his forest workshop near Chýnov. The pensive figure, curled up on the ground and resting his chin on his own knee, resembles a broken slave rather than a human being. The statue is an allegory of the time as the author perceived it. František Bílek's religious beliefs, which were based first on the Catholic and later on the Czechoslovak Hussite faith, are probably best described by the wooden statue of the Virgin Mary with the Baby Jesus from 1901. Mary holds a sleeping child in her arms, just as a dove at her feet cares for her young, which this symbol of motherly love is even more powerful. On the base you can also see Bílk's typical font, which he used to mark his works. The wooden sculpture Spiritual Meetings from 1925 was created on the occasion of the anniversary of his life together with the artist's wife Berta. Bílek carved it from two maple trees, which were joined together as a symbol of the meeting of a woman and a man. While processing the trees, a wooden lump fell out of the woman's head. Before the sculptor returned it, he put a note under it with the sentence: "Only in God is the eternal meeting", signed by him and his wife. On the first floor in the living areas, a plaster relief from 1897 of the Marian Gardener, which is colored ash, attracts attention on the wall. The author even processed this subject depicting Jesus Christ several times. In addition to graphics, the almost unknown carved wooden relief in the collections of the Modern Gallery in Zagreb, Croatia is also highly valued. On the second floor, at first glance, the visitor's eye is caught by the numerous sculptures of the design of the national monument for Biela Hora from 1908. Bílek worked on it in the premises of the Strahov monastery, which he had to leave due to the disagreement of the church representatives with his ideological intention. The monument, which was supposed to be a symbol of one of the greatest national tragedies, unfortunately never saw its completion. Right next to it is an exposition dedicated to the deep friendship of František Bílek and the poet Otokar Březin, lasting almost thirty years. Both artists put the main emphasis on the spiritual mission of the work, which they prioritized over formal aesthetic expression. One example of their mutual spiritual dialogue is, for example, the cycle of eight symbolist drawings that Bílek created for Březin's poetry collection Ruky. Bílek later became the "courtly" illustrator of most of Březinovich's books. But at the same time, he also realized several portraits of his friend in plaster, in graphics or in drawings. Under the influence of Březin's work, even some important works by Bílka were created, such as the statue of the Blind from 1901 or the Future Conquerors. The unique collection, housed in a villa that proudly bears the name of its builder, is an example of the best, by which Czech sculpture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries could be fully included in the European artistic quality.
Text and photo: Vladimír Dubeň