Jakub Špaňhel: Five Lights Above the Water

 According to legend, during the night of March 20, 1393, five lights appeared above the Vltava River over the spot where the tortured body of John of Nepomuk was thrown into the water by the king's henchmen. They were a sign by which his body was found later by fishermen. They handed the dead man's body over to the brothers of the Knights of the Cross with a Red Heart, who buried him in the Church of the True Cross. Before 1416, the former vicar-general of the Prague Archbishopric's remains were reinterred in the south choir gallery in front of the Vlašim Chapel in the Cathedral of St Vitus.

Jakub Špaňhel (b. 1976) first touched upon the legend of - ostensibly - the most famous Czech saint at the turn of the 21st century when he painted the interior of St Vitus Cathedral and the martyr’s famous silver tomb as part of his thesis work focusing on church interiors. At the time he painted using images from guidebooks. He circled back to the subject twenty years later, this time creating an entirely new monographic series of canvases which is exhibited here in its entirety for the very first time.

Špaňhel is a prolific artist who uses his painting as a kind of journal of his personal life. Here the connection is somewhat looser, and likely refers to the many years he spent living near the spiritually-infused small central Bohemian town of Svatý Jan pod Skalou (St. John Under the Rock, as John the Baptist is also known as). The church there, construction of which began in 639 and dedicated to the saint, is allegedly located on the site of Nepomuk’s birthplace. The idea for this series percolated in Špaňhel’s mind for many years. In late 2018, he finally created seven of the twenty paintings during a single week – each day a new energetic large-format canvas. Other compositions emerged last summer, and the last couple were finished just before the exhibition, in late 2019.

As is usual for Špaňhel, one of the most prominent painters of his generation, he once again worked from authentic originals. At first, these were Baroque graphic works, which drew him back to dramatic black and white painting and defragmented paintings composed of gestural strokes of dry pigment. He later moved from entropy to greater figurality, adding colouristic interventions. This was when he began to use folk sacred images from the 19th century as his "prototypes". The sources of inspiration are apparent not only in the colour palette of the paintings but also, for example, in some formal details and the composition of individual paintings. This series naturally consolidates all of the elements of Špaňhel's typically expressive style.

 It is also interesting to see how he changes his approach as it relates to the specific motif. His dynamic scenes are composed of sweeping gestures, light and shadows, while compositions depicting the saint's tomb are modelled with a dense abstract vortex of concentrated colour energy. The new series of paintings, executed over more than a year, has remained expressively open. It has, therefore, remained poised between two opposite poles, creating a kind of linkage or transition between his colourful variegated paintings of nature from recent years and his earlier Reynek-style austerity. They also combined within themselves the artist’s appreciation for the magical atmosphere of spiritually infused places and his interest in a specific historical figure.

In addition to traditionally painted canvases, this new theme has also permeated Špaňhel’s roller painted series, where it takes on a completely different feeling. The recurring miniaturized motif of the martyr, here stylized into a simplified silhouette, echoes in the sense of a visual prayer, with attention being drawn instead to the minute details of the spontaneous flowing painting, which the artist refers to as maps. What elsewhere naturally escapes attention as just a small part of an artist’s style supporting their overall expression is here a crucial semantic element related to water, a key component of Nepomukian iconography, accentuated with a bright cold colour palette. This continues with the outline of the figure, based on one of the statues of the saint, which is traditionally placed on bridges spanning flowing water. 

The exhibition takes full advantage of the historical potential and the spatial and aesthetic layout of the gallery, up to the level of painting. From this perspective, it can be described as site-specific. The pictures in the exhibition are complemented by an original wooden polychrome sculpture of John of Nepomuk and a copy of the relief from the Charles Bridge depicting the moment when the saint’s body was thrown in the water. Based on the second traditional scene relating to the story of John of Nepomuk, that of the confessions of the wife of Wenceslas IV, Queen Sophia of Bavaria, which was long considered the pretext for Nepomuk’s torture and death, Špaňhel painted directly on the wall in one of the alcoves of the exhibition space. The exhibition works with the view into the adjoining cloister, the vaulted arches visually corresponding to the those in the painting installed directly next to the window. The largest roller-painted canvas is, for a change, mounted directly to the wall, without a wooden stretcher, thereby referencing textile wallpaper or tapestries, a typical method used in historical interiors to insulate cold rooms.

Last year marked 290 years since John of Nepomuk’s canonization. And this – just like today's empty consumerist-populist era – may be a reason to explore compelling human stories like this, which expand beyond an often-dismal reality. The fact that this is taking place in a gallery that lies just a short distance from Charles Bridge, the actual site of the tragedy of St John of Nepomuk, gives the entire project a new dimension. The opportunity to see these images in such a real, relevant environment is unparalleled, and most likely will never be repeated.

Radek Wohlmuth

curator