Zprávy památkové péče 2018, 78(4):317-330 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2018.4.05

The Bishop seat of Kroměříž - one of the centers of production for liturgical objects made from precious metals in Moravia during the Baroque period

Anna Grossová

NPÚ, ÚOP v Kroměříži

Archives provide us with the names of a number of goldsmiths and silver masters active in Moravia from the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century, but they tell us little about their actual creative work. Most historical valuables of a liturgical and profane nature made of precious metals, as far as we know, were melted down between 1806-1807 and 1809-1810 in order to avert state bankruptcy. When looking at the production of Baroque jewelry from the 17th and (especially) 18th centuries, what is available today is less than a mere torso of the rich personal and church sets that represent the work of local goldsmiths settled throughout Moravian cities and towns as well as masters from Augsburg, Vienna, and Prague. Thanks to the bishops of Olomouc, the most important cities also include Kroměříž, where at the beginning of the 1730's the city was home to up to six goldsmith workshops, ranking it third in Moravia.
This article is primarily a summary of the history of the goldsmith craft of the Bishop city of Kroměříž during the early Modern Age (between 1492 and 1789); it concludes with a professional evaluation of newly discovered silver works of the Kroměříž goldsmith and münzmeister of the Bishop's mint, Mikuláš František Indegrentz (1665-1732) and the author's designation of several other liturgical objects. These are specifically the work of Jan Jakub Bernkopf, Jan Wolfgang Kolb, and Antonín Kašpar Grotte.

Keywords: liturgical vessels and tools, jewelry and silverware, Baroque, Moravia, Kroměříž, applied arts, crafts, 17th and 18th centuries

Published: December 1, 2018  Show citation