Turnov (Semilsko) – The upcoming exhibition of the museum in Turnov is focused on the holy images that accompanied the lives of believers from birth to death. They also had their function in folk medicine, exhibition curator Miroslav Cogan told ČTK today.
Smaller images served as medicines that believers swallowed, larger ones were applied to sore spots of the sick or injured. “The so-called scapulars had a completely exceptional position in protection or healing, and we also devote space to them here, because it is a very interesting phenomenon,” said Cogan.
According to him, the scapulars were popular because, according to legend, the Virgin Mary promised everyone who wore them that they would be saved. Originally it was a two-sided apron – scapula. “Gradually, for practical reasons, it was reduced to small boxes on laces or on ribbons, so one box hung on the breast, the other on the back, and contained folded images with several saints,” the curator said. The images were supplemented with prayers or incantations against demons to cover the greatest possible range of possible dangers and risks. “Because of this, they were widespread and popular throughout the Christian world,” added the curator.
According to him, with the exhibition, they primarily wanted to show how important a role holy images had in the life of a believer. “They accompanied him from birth, first mass, first confession until his death,” he said. The exhibition includes holy pictures from church celebrations, confessionals, indulgences and souvenirs from pilgrimages. Most often, the Virgin Mary was depicted on them. “She was a universal helper in all difficulties, while her Heavenly Company, as this exhibition is called, that group of saints usually had some specific task of protection. For example, Saint Blaise was a patron against diphtheria, Apollonia against toothache, Saint Florian protected against fire, Saint Jan Nepomucký before drowning and high water and so on,” said the curator.
The exhibition, which will begin with an opening on Thursday evening, features holy pictures from the rich collection of the Scheybal family. The museum owns the collection. A selection from it indicates the wide range of techniques used in the production of holy images. “From the more luxurious ones painted on parchment to printed with graphic techniques such as offset and color lithography,” said Cogan.
The oldest in the exhibition are colored line etchings from Flanders by Jan van der Sande from the second quarter of the 17th century, and the youngest are printed with polygraphic techniques from the first half of the 20th century. The exhibition also includes a painted image on a prepared oak leaf or several copper plates intended for printing holy images from the hands of master copper engravers of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the past, even Baroque masters such as Jan Jiří Balzer fulfilled commissions for holy pictures, later they became a lucrative publishing industry and some printers even specialized in them.
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Czech Republic museums folklore faith AUDIO Turnov PHOTO
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
