In Eternal Memory | Painted Renaissance Epitaphs in the Czech Lands

17 May – 26 August 2007
Olomouc Archdiocesan Museum | Gallery

Painted epitaphs (tombstone inscriptions or celebratory necrologies), a specific form of Renaissance art, are exhibited here for the first time in this country. This form of art met with enormous popularity in the Czech Lands in the 16th and 17th centuries. The exhibited works literally transformed churches into galleries and „exhibition cases“ for burgher and noble families as well as other figures. These epitaphs represented their longing for preservation in a permanent form. The Olomouc exhibition presents more than thirty epitaphs from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, covering an entire century, from the earliest memorial from the year 1549 to the latest created in the year 1649.