Frana (illuminator)

Frana ( Czech: Fráňa ) is the name of one of the illuminators in Prague who painted the Wenceslas Bible around 1400 . Besides Kuthner, Frana is the only one of these painters who has inconspicuously signed a few parts of his work on this magnificent Bible. His full name is said to have been František .

Frana can be documented among the painters at the court of King Wenceslas of Prague in Bohemia between 1397 and 1414 , and in 1401 the king gave him the house at the tower in Prague near the synagogue. As an employee of the Wenceslas workshop , he also worked on other important works for the king. For example, he painted the title page of a copy of Charles IV's Golden Bull with great skill . Wenceslaus, Charles' son, commissioned this copy around 1400. He is also said to have painted the illuminations for a commentary on the psalms by Nicolaus von Lyra in his workshop around 1395 . His work could have been contributions to the court library that Wenzel built in Prague.

The Wenceslas Bible was written around 1400. Frana designed pictures in the first volume of the Bible, he inscribed himself inconspicuously as Frana on two layers . Like all the artists working in the Wenceslas workshop, Frana followed the instructions, some of which can still be found on the pages, as to which and how a scene should be designed graphically. This indicates his work under a workshop management who coordinated the complete edition of the Wenceslas Bible. However, every painter had his own peculiarities in painting style, typical of Frana's painting style are delicate, thin-limbed figures, which are depicted with expressive gestures and finely painted faces with pointed brushes. Frana's Czech and presumed full name František, which has been preserved in documents, can point to an origin in Bohemia, his typical style to an education in southern Germany. It may have been influenced by the work of the master of the Wittingau altar . The multitude of possible artistic impulses that characterize Frana's work are typical of the international position of Prague illumination in its heyday under King Wenceslaus.

literature

• Julius Ritter von Schlosser: The illuminated manuscripts of King Wenzel I. In: Yearbook of the art historical collections of the very highest imperial family. Vol. 14 (1893).
• G. Schmid: Painting until 1450. In: KM Swoboda (Hrsg.): Gotik in Böhmen . Munich 1969.
• Josef Krasa: The manuscripts of King Wenceslas IV. Vienna 1971.
• M. Kramer: King Wenzel. His library - His Bible - His world. Introduction to the Wenceslas Bible: King Wenzel's magnificent manuscript of the German Bible , reduced facsimile edition based on the original in the Austrian National Library Vienna, Cod. 2760, explained by H. Appuhn, Vienna a. Graz 1981.
• Austrian National Library. The Golden Bull. King Wenceslas handwriting . Facsimile edition in a smaller format based on the original Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. 338. Graz 2002.
• Harald Horst: Introduction and description of the exhibits - Magnificent Bibles from the Middle Ages Valuable Bible manuscripts and prints from the 11th-16th centuries. Century. Exhibition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf in connection with Heinz Urselmann on the “Year of the Bible 2003” March 2003. Düsseldorf 2003.
• J. Fajt (Ed.): Charles IV. Emperor by God's grace, art and representation of the House of Luxembourg 1310-1437. Catalog for the exhibition at Prague Castle 2006. Deutscher Kunstverlag 2006.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. G. Schmid: Painting until 1450. In: KM Swoboda (Hrsg.): Gotik in Böhmen . Munich 1969, pp. 167-321.
2. ↑ Milada Vilimkova: The Prague Jewish City . Brno 1990, p. 21.
3. ^ Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. 338
4. ↑ Salzburg University Library, ( M III 20 )