Zprávy památkové péče 2018, 78(5):457-465 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2018.5.06

Wood carver Bohumil Bek and the Governmental Monument Commission in Slovakia. The beginning of restoration work (1920-1923)

Tomáš Kowalski

Pamiatkový úrad SR

The wood carver Bohumil Bek (1879-1951) is one of the better known masters in his field in the Bohemian area. In 1909 he established a separate workshop in Kutná Hora specializing in sacred carvings, decorations, and gilding. During its peak period, twenty artisans worked there. Customers included parishes, societies, private people, families, and others.
Bek's next phase of activities focused on the conservation and renovation of wooden art works. In 1919, he restored the early Baroque main altar of the St. Bartholomew Church in Pelhřimov. This work was thereafter regarded by all as a reference to his skills, including the authorities responsible for heritage protection.
In Slovakia, the Governmental Commissariat for Monument Protection was established in April 1919. Before the end of the same year, the executive secretary of the Commissariat, Jan Hofman, asked the monuments offices in Brno and Prague for skilled workshops or masters in conservation who could work in Slovakia. The Monuments Office for Bohemia offered two names, and the first on the list was Bohumil Bek.
Still, contact between the Governmental Commissariat in Slovakia and Bek only began in June 1920. Vladimír Wagner, a university student of art history in Prague, personally provided information that Bek was without work and looking for a job. Finally, Bek was officially asked for offers and calculations for conservation work in the parish church in Levoča and possibly in Prešov. The work was to start immediately, but he was first invited to Bratislava for a consultation with the Commissariat, which would give permission with a mandate for talking to parishes. Bek personally visited Bratislava on 12 July 1920.
Bek drafted his first offer on salvage and restoration in Prešov on 9 August 1920. He offered work on stalls, Calvary figures, and a statue of St. John the Evangelist for a total sum of 33,450 Crowns, but the state building office corrected his calculation to 21,244 Crowns. After all this, the work in Prešov only commenced in the early 1930's by other masters.
On 15 November 1920 and 7 March 1920, the Commissariat asked Bek for an offer to carry out conservation work in the parish church in Svätý Jur, close to the capital of Slovakia. The heritage authority initiated the complete building renovation. The furnishings consisted of the Baroque chancel and two side-altars, as well as three Neo-Gothic altars with an idea of a redesign. Bek offered all work in a detailed schedule. Given to the quantity of the tasks, three collaborators from the workshop were also employed.
The final work, however, was assessed by the Commissariat as very embarrassing. His secretary Hofman argued against the changes of colors and believed in using "silver" bronze for the altar structures.
In 1921, Bek worked on the renovation of the Gothic altars in St. Jacob's Church in Levoča. Unfortunately, information is provided only by a "private" letter from Hofman to Bek in which he was asked to perform additional repair work due to a disagreement expressed by the Ministry of Education. The preservation of each of the rest of the original colours was discussed mainly by Hofman and one of the artists from Bek's workshop.
Despite controversy, Bek was contacted about inspecting the gymnasial church of Levoča with the complete furnishings by Olaf Engelholm from the last quarter of the 17th century that had been damaged by pupils. In April 1922, Bek offered to renovate it for the total sum of 109,557 Crowns, which would be divided into four-year-long projects of work. Such a budget was inconceivable for the Ministry of Education as well as the Central Commission for Catholic Properties in Slovakia as a follower of the former School Endowment Fund.
Between June and August 1922, Bek began restoration work on a Baroque main altar in Jur, now the municipality of Hubošovce, in Šariš County. The Governmental Commissariat agreed and asked the Ministry of Education for a state subvention of 6,000 Crowns. The restoration mostly involved placing back statues of St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist. In the end, this work became problematic due to the compensation of the state subvention; the ministry disputed the scale of the work, the absence of a detailed conservation program, and finally the method of billing. Bek worked on loan for materials and his suppliers demanded payment.
The last cases from the time of the Commissariat are Bek's interventions when parishes ordered new altars in traditional styles of historicism. Bek, in contradiction, offered his own designs, combinations of ancient and modern forms. Even though the Governmental Commissariat agreed with Bek's activities, the ministry halted them because of the impossibility of acting as both an official expert and a person interested in business.
In spite of a number of discrepancies, Bek was in favour of state authorities and took part in various specialized tasks associated with the artistic heritage of Slovakia.

Keywords: Bohumil Bek, restoration, interwar monument care, Slovakia

Published: December 1, 2018  Show citation