Lot 90

František Bílek (1872 - 1941) A VASE WITH A SCULPTURE

At the first glance at the vase with the unmistakable handwriting of František Bílek, it is obvious that it is a timeless mystical work. František Bílek carved and shaped his works as if he had torn them out of his own interior. Although he is primarily associated with Christian themes, his work is more an image of humanity and inner experiences than of Christian realities themselves. The distressed female sculpture, subject to painful loss, touches the body of the vase and points towards a number of motifs that refer to the religious traditions of ancient Egypt and its Book of the Dead. The engraved motif places the human figure in front of ancient deities and a winged scarab - a motif of cyclicity and rebirth. Ancient Egypt, as the cradle of biblical stories, fascinated Bílek and he probably modeled the facade of his villa on the colonnaded court of Amenhotep III in Luxor. The archaizing style imitates perhaps the pre-Christian Etruscan "bucchero" pottery, which often features mythical themes and not infrequently features zoomorphic or anthropomorphic sculptures. An analogous vase is in the collections of the Prague City Gallery under inventory number P-1480.