Jan Hus

2011

Jan Hus bust sculpture by Daniel Paul at Bethlehem Chapel in Prague
Jan Hus (2011), a charred oak wood bust sculpture by Daniel Paul, installed in the Bethlehem Chapel courtyard in Prague, Czech Republic.

Jan Hus

2011

Charred oak wood
Installed 9 June 2011

Original setting
Bethlehem Chapel courtyard, Prague, Czech Republic

No reliable portrait of Jan Hus from his lifetime survives. For this sculpture, Paul created a bust based on early depictions in Ulrich Richental’s Chronicle of the Council of Constance, where Hus appears very different from the familiar bearded image that began to emerge around 1500 and became established during the 16th century as that of a scholar, reformer and martyr.

Early depiction of Jan Hus in Ulrich Richental’s Chronicle of the Council of Constance, Prague manuscript, 1460–1464

One of the early sources for the depiction of Jan Hus. From an illustrated manuscript of Ulrich Richental’s, Chronicle of the Council of Constance, Prague manuscript, 1460–1464, fol. 124v. National Library of the Czech Republic. Digital reproduction: Manuscriptorium / MMSB. Public domain · Wikimedia Commons.





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