House at the Black Madonna - Animating the Old Town of Prague

HOUSE AT THE BLACK MADONNA: ANIMATING THE OLD TOWN OF PRAGUE

Geneviève Shymanski ARCH 354 : Western Architecture from 1750 to 1950 For Dr. Edward Houle and Teaching Assistant Aniel Guxholli November 28th 2018

Figure – House at the Black Madonna, architect Josef Gočár, 1912.

Milena Lamarová et al., Czech Cubism: Architecture, Furniture, and Decorative Arts, 1910-1925 (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992), 124.

As the artistic movement of Cubism spread throughout Europe in the early 20th century, it particularly struck a chord with a group of artists in Prague, who were inspired to bring the fragmented forms of Picasso and Braque into the third dimension.1 In 1911, Pavel Janák and Josef Gočár, students of Otto Wagner and Jan Kotěra, were emerging in Prague’s architectural scene and founded the Skupina výtvarných umĕlců (‘Group of Plastic Artists’) along with other artists and architects.2 The group published the art journal Umělecký mĕsíčník (‘Art Monthly’) and it was through this platform that Janák, practicing architect and the leading theoretician of the group, published a series of essays defining the ideas and concepts that shaped what is called Czech Cubism.3 This highly theoretical and intellectual movement was influenced both by the Cubist art based in France but also by older architectural styles found in Prague, namely the Gothic and Baroque. Unfortunately, the group flourished for only a brief time before it was dissolved just before the First World War. In an attempt to recapture an intense period of creative expression, this paper will analyze Josef Gočár’s architectural project, House at the Black Madonna, through the lens of Pavel Janák’s theories on form, movement, and the façade, and their relationship to Czech Baroque and Gothic architecture. This analysis will also demonstrate the gap between theory and practice by highlighting certain design choices, in conflict with Janák’s principles, that allowed Gočár to successfully integrate the building into its urban Baroque context.

In order to interpret Pavel Janák’s theories, it is important to first understand the architectural context of Prague that guided the principles he outlined in his essays. Czech architectural heritage is largely founded on the Gothic and Baroque styles, which emerged in the region 700 years prior to the

1

Jiří Švestka et al., Czech Cubism 1909-1925: Art, Architecture, Design: [Exhibition, Kunstverein Für Die Rheinlande Und Westfalen] (Prague: I3 CZ, 2006).

2 Zdeněk Lukeš, Phenomenon: Czech Architectural Cubism, 2007 (Prague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Promotion Department, 2006), 20.

3 Švestka et al., Czech Cubism 1909-1925: Art, Architecture, Design: [Exhibition, Kunstverein Für Die Rheinlande Und Westfalen].

birth of Czech Cubism.4 In the 14th century, the Gothic flourished in Prague under the reign of Charles IV, who founded some of Prague’s most important monuments, such as St Vitus Cathedral at the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, and the Old Town Hall. The style dominated the Old Town of Prague.5 This architecture focused not only on verticality, elegance and use of light, but also on structure and mass to achieve visual dynamism. This rendered the Gothic style in Prague unique within the European Gothic movement.6 By the early 17th century, under the rule of the Austrian Habsburg Empire, the Czech lands became dominated by the Catholic Church.7 Along with their religious doctrines, the Habsburgs introduced the Baroque style into Prague.8 The architectural style projected opulence, richness, power, abundance in ornamentation, and complexity.9 It emphasized color, the movement of light and shadow, strong horizontality and asymmetry in the façade, and excessive decoration.10 The Baroque architecture capitalized on the use of stucco for moldings and ceilings.11 Where the Gothic style used material explicitly in structure (using stone to demonstrate monumentality), the Baroque used brickwork for its structure and covered it with plaster of exceptional quality.12 This allowed architects to plastically form the building, a new method of expressiveness and a continuation of the dynamism seen in the late Gothic architecture of Prague.13 Good quality stone was not readily accessible in the Czech lands, so using colorful plasters instead allowed more creative freedom.14 This inexpensive method of building

4

Tomáš Hořava, “Prague,” AA Files, no. 22 (1991): 28.

Marie Černá and Pavla Grünerová, Dějiny výtvarného umění [Art History], 6th ed. (Prague: Idea servis, 2012), 6366.

6 Černá and Grünerová, 63-66.

7 Jiří Tomáš Kotalík and Kathleen Hayes, Architecture of the Baroque, Ten Centuries of Architecture; 4 (Prague: Prague castle administration, 2001), 13.

8 Kotalík and Hayes, 13.

9 Kotalík and Hayes, 13.

10 Kotalík and Hayes, 13.

11 Milan Vladislav Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism” (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1990), 19.

12 Vancura, 19.

13 Vancura, 19.

14 Vancura, 19.

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allowed the Baroque to quickly spread through Prague’s Old Town, where its colorful character can still be seen today.

Since the 17th century, Prague has remained relatively intact, unlike many other European capital cities, and much of the Gothic and Baroque architecture was preserved or easily renovated in a mixture of these styles.15 Walking through the Old Town of Prague, one notices many facades feature Baroque elements such as the gable or mansard roof while retaining their Gothic foundations.16 This architectural context, unique to Prague, provided the backdrop for Pavel Janák’s theories.

In 1911, the same year these theories were being developed, wholesaler František Josef Herbst called upon Josef Gočár to design a large department store on the corner of Celetná street and Ovocný trh (Fruit Market), in the heart of Prague’s Old Town.17 At this point, Gočár, an experienced architect, had several plans underway for other designs in the Czech Cubist style, such as the Bohdaneč Spa and for the Group of Plastic Artists’ exhibition at the Prague Municipal Hall, both completed in 1912.18 The building was to be six floors, four above ground and two basements, with the department store on the ground floor, the Grand Orient Café on the first, and apartments and offices on the floors above.19 The site was situated along an ancient coronation route taken by Bohemian Kings20 and originally held two

15

Hořava, “Prague,” 29.

Hořava, 29.

17 Michal Bregant and Středoevropská galerie a nakladatelství, Kubistická Praha: 1909-1925: průvodce = Cubist Prague: 1909-1925: a guidebook, Edice Detail; 3 (Prague: Středoevropská galerie a nakl., 1995), 7.

18 Milena Lamarová et al., Czech Cubism: Architecture, Furniture, and Decorative Arts, 1910-1925 (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992), 59.

19 Švestka et al., Czech Cubism 1909-1925: Art, Architecture, Design: [Exhibition, Kunstverein Für Die Rheinlande Und Westfalen].

20 Bregant and Středoevropská galerie a nakladatelství, Kubistická Praha: 1909-1925: průvodce = Cubist Prague: 1909-1925: a guidebook, 9.

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houses belonging to the Knights of Granovský21 (Figure 1). The Prague Municipal Council oversaw the project and encouraged Gočár to use his creative freedom for the design but required that the overall façade be harmonized with the neighbourhood’s urban Baroque context.22 The original building was named Dům u černé matky boží (House at the Black Madonna) after the statue of the Black Virgin Mary situated on the façade on the corner of the intersection dating to the 17th century (Figure 2).23 The statue, kept behind a golden grille, holds the baby Figure 1 – Original Granovský House, 1910.

Jesus and looks over the street, as if protecting it. Preserving the house’s

Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı ́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 20.

name was Gočár’s first step in conserving the site’s historical significance.24 In the spring of 1911, Gočár made his first draft for the house, and revised the plan in January of 1912 after receiving Figure 2 - Statue of the Black Madonna.

“The House at the Black Madonna,” Czech cubism, accessed November 22, 2018, http://www.czkubismus.cz/en/the-house-at-theblack-madonna.

21

Milena Lamarová, Irena Žantovská Murray, and Centre canadien d’architecture, [Lectures on Czech Cubist Architecture and Design], 1992.

22 Bregant and Středoevropská galerie a nakladatelství, Kubistická Praha: 1909-1925: průvodce = Cubist Prague: 1909-1925: a guidebook, 19.

23 Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 10.

24 Lamarová, Žantovská Murray, and Centre canadien d’architecture, [Lectures on Czech Cubist Architecture and Design].

feedback from the Prague Municipal Council (Figure 3).25 The House at the Black Madonna, the first Czech Cubist building to be realized in Prague, was then finished by the end of 1912.26 The transition between Gočár’s first and second plans for the House at the Black Madonna shows the evolution of the development of the theories of Pavel Janák within the Group of Plastic Artists as he added more Czech Cubist elements to his plans, but also reflects how Gočár chose to ignore some of Janák’s principles in order to achieve his final design.

Figure 3 - First and second elevation plans for House at the Black Madonna, 1911.

Pavel Janák’s article “Hranol a pyramida” (The Prism and the Pyramid) - the most influential of his texts – describes

Archives of Architecture, NTM, Prague, taken from Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı ́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 19.

the core of his theories: in order to artistically create, one must animate matter.27 He celebrated the Gothic and the Baroque styles in their ability to accomplish this; “Gothic and baroque call our attention by the vitality of the spirit penetrating their matter and the dramatic character of the expressive devices creating their forms.”28 He felt that the Gothic and Baroque styles were governed by abstraction and stated that “abstraction is effort toward simple expression.”29 Janák’s theories on volume and matter were driven by his belief that artistic expression occurred by giving life to matter.30 His devotion to artistic expression stemmed from a rejection of Wagner’s

25

Bregant and Středoevropská galerie a nakladatelství, Kubistická Praha: 1909-1925: průvodce = Cubist Prague: 1909-1925: a guidebook, 20.

26 Bregant and Středoevropská galerie a nakladatelství, 20.

27 Pavel Janák, “Hranol a pyramida [The Prism and the Pyramid],” Umělecký měsíčník, 1911, trans. Milan Vladislav Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism” (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1990), 395.

28 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, 394.

29 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, 392.

30 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, 395.

rationalist ideas of purpose, construction and material.31 In “O nábytku a jiném” (About Furniture and Other Matters), Janák regarded architecture as completely autonomous and free of external influences that its sole purpose was artistic will.32 He believed that architecture had the duty of escaping the limits of matter and materiality in the same way that the Gothic and Baroque cathedrals did, in their volume and monumentality.33 Inspired by French cubist principles of decomposing a three-dimensional volume and using the fragments to make a spatial composition, Janák sought to explore these forms physically.34 The decomposition of volume into a system of spatially interpenetrating planes leads to a structural dynamization and movement of mass.35 This relationship between space and matter is seen through the pointed, sharp, crystalline, and oblique forms consistently used in Czech Cubism. Janák believed the edges and joints of a building denoted these penetrations into space and should be emphasized.36 Janák explains that the basis of dead matter, composed of purely horizontal and vertical elements, must come alive from the penetration of a third force which he calls the oblique.37 This force is what animates matter, giving it momentum where the vertical and horizontal forces were once at rest.38 He believed that if dead matter is to be “spiritualized or artistically overcome”, it must be done through the introduction of a third surface.39 He regards oblique elements as dramatic, directional, and dynamic.40 The façade of a building following this principle should therefore have a certain directional

31

Platovská and Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, 11.

Thomas Ort, Art and Life in Modernist Prague: Karel Capek and His Generation, 1911-1938, 1 online resource (277 pages). vols., Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 81.

33 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura “Hranol a pyramida [The Prism and the Pyramid],”391.

34 Lamarová, Žantovská Murray, and Centre canadien d’architecture, [Lectures on Czech Cubist Architecture and Design].

35 Olga Herbenová, Kōichi Inoue, and PARCO Shuppan, Czechoslovakia: Cubism, the World of Architecture, Furniture and Craft: Space Part 3, 8F, PARCO Part 3, July 1-22, 1984 (Tokyo: PARCO, 1984), 8.

36 Lamarová et al., Czech Cubism: Architecture, Furniture, and Decorative Arts, 1910-1925.

37 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, 395.

38 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, 395.

39 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, 401.

40 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, 396.

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movement.41 On the House at the Black Madonna, Gočár folds the façade in the center, orienting the observer as it opens onto the large space at Ovocný trh, emphasizing the directional choice of a pedestrian at the intersection of the street (Figure 4).42

Figure 4 - Facade of the House at the Black Madonna.

“The House at the Black Madonna,” Czech cubism, accessed November 22, 2018, http://www.czkubismus.cz/en/the-house-at-the-black-madonna.

However, Gočár, who was more classicist in practice43, chose to emphasize vertical and horizontal planes. The façade of the House at the Black Madonna horizontally pronounces the heights of the storeys with strongly projected cornices. The stepped roof also enforces this. The vertical plane is emphasized by the rhythm of the vertical columns that visually carry the weight of the roof. The large projection of the roof also outlines Figure 5 - Column on the Facade of the House at the Black Madonna above the 3rd floor.

the sharp vertical silhouette of the building. The classical fluting of the columns on the third floor (Figure 5), as well as the post

“The House at the Black Madonna,” Czech cubism, accessed November 22, 2018, http://www.czkubismus.cz/en/the-house-at-the-blackmadonna.

41

Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura “Hranol a pyramida [The Prism and the Pyramid],”396.

Platovská and Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, 11.

43 International Conference Comité international d’histoire de l’art Kraków / Monachium) et al., Nation, Style, Modernism: [Proceedings of the International Conference under the Patronage of Comité International d’histoire de l’art (CIHA), Organised by the Zentralinstitut Für Kunstgeschichte, Munich and the International Cultural Centre, Cracow 6-12 September, 2003], CIHA Conference Papers 1 (Krakow: International Cultural Centre, 2006), 101.

42

and lintel character serves Gočár’s personal taste and dates the structure, helping us place the building in its context, despite not being traditional Baroque elements. These components still harmonize with the Baroque façade, which often places vertical emphasis in contrast to heavy horizontal divisions at each storey and uses projecting elements to visually emphasize the edges.44 This is meant to give the façade a more sculptural effect, contributing to the plastic character of the Baroque that Janák often speaks of.45 In combination with these horizontal and vertical planes, Gočár does include the oblique plane on the columns, entrance pillars and bay windows, and particularly

Figure 6 – Entrance of the House at the Black Madonna, 1999.

Jan Malý, taken from Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı ́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 31.

makes use of it on the pointed dormer windows on the roof and in smaller details such as the capitals of the columns, balcony railing, entrance door and frame grille (Figure 6). In fact, Gočár’s use of the oblique angling in all railings and grilles evoke the same language as the ribs joining together in the vaulted ceilings in a Baroque cathedral.46 Pavel Janák felt that Czech Cubist volumes should have a strong monolithic character, as if the whole piece was done in one casting, where all individual members contribute to articulating the whole of the matter.47 This was in contradiction to the abundance of ornamentation seen in the Baroque, as Janák believed that the façade should be artistically expressive and dynamic enough that the form alone could fulfill ornamental

44

“Baroque Architecture: Definition, History, Characteristics,” accessed November 21, 2018, http://www.visualarts-cork.com/history-of-art/baroque-architecture.htm.

45 Platovská and Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, 11.

46 Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism,” 172.

47 Pavel Janák, “O nábytku a jiném [About Furniture and Other Matters],” Umělecký měsíčník, 1911, trans. Milan Vladislav Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism” (Georgia Institute of Technology, 1990), 470.

function and the architecture could stand on its own.48 This idea originated rather from the sculptural qualities of the Baroque. The use of plaster on Baroque facades in Prague gave their buildings the visual impression of mass being carved on both the exterior and interior, giving a plastic expressivity to its details.49 From the solidity of Gočár’s large roof, to the oblique angles of the columns and windows, Janák’s sculpted monolith volume is visible in the whole façade.50 The entrance of the House at the Black Madonna is shifted to the left, the right pillar to the center angular fold of the façade, clearly pronouncing its angle and enforcing a asymmetry that contrasts the rhythm set by the columns and windows.51 The dynamic plasticity and interpenetration of planes in both the Baroque and the House at the Black Madonna give a sense of spatial movement.

The picturesque effect in Czech Baroque architecture, like French Cubist paintings, is created by the deconstruction of volume into its facets, from which new forms emerge through the change of viewpoints.52 The Baroque style demonstrates this visual effect through the use of light and shadow, rhythm, and the plasticity of a facade to evoke movement in matter.53 As the inclined planes of the Czech Cubist form collide and penetrate each other, they show multiple readings of the overlapping volumes and visual perceptions. The oblique angles of the columns, center fold, and windows of the House at the Black Madonna offer this spatial experience, providing different views as the observer turns from Celetná

Figure 7 - Entrance door of the House at the Black Madonna François Burkhardt and Milena Lamarová, Cubismo cecoslovacco: architetture e interni, Architettura. Saggi & documenti (Milan: Electa, 1982), 55.

street onto Ovocný trh around the building. The entrance door grille (Figure 7) consists of double rows

48

Reinder Zwart, “SHOULD ARCHITECTURAL CUBISM BE PUT ON THE WORLD HERITAGE LIST?,” July 19, 2008, 36.

Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism,” 20.

50 Vancura, 20.

51 Platovská and Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, 12.

52 François Burkhardt, Vlastislav Hofman, and Internationales Design Zentrum Berlin, Vlastislav Hofman, Architektur des böhmischen Kubismus (Berlin: IDZ, 1982), trans. Paul Scott, 25.

53 Černá and Grünerová, Dějiny výtvarného umění [Art History].

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of metal bars, so as an observer moves, they perceive an illusion of depth and new figures and forms.54 This movement is translated to the interior by the stairwell, serving as an optical point uniting the whole building (Figure 8). As the stair railing twists and rotates, the perception of its grille creates a “spatial game playing with light and shadow.”55 The angular intersections between the bay windows and columns highlight the dynamic play of light and shadow on the façade of the House at the Black Madonna. This emphasizes the rhythm of the columns along the façade. The optical depth of the recessed bay windows as they expand outward on the facade blurs the division between exterior and interior.56 The Baroque uses light and shadow to create movement and illusion of relief, where objects project or recede in space.57 The additive character of recessed windows and protruding columns give the same notion of relief as they are superimposed. Superimposition on the façade is crucial for Janák as it allows the composition to be read holistically (alike to the façade’s monolithic character).58 Superimposition is a means to abstraction, in which

Figure 8 - Stairwell in the House at the Black Madonna, 1999.

Jan Malý, taken from Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı ́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 31.

the overall form is more powerful “if we first see the façade, then the roof and finally the cathedral.”59 From this, Janák introduces the pyramid as the supreme form of matter, abstracted from a natural prism.60 He justifies this by comparing to the Gothic and Baroque, since the

54

François Burkhardt and Milena Lamarová, Cubismo cecoslovacco: architetture e interni, Architettura. Saggi & documenti (Milan: Electa, 1982), 55.

55 Burkhardt and Lamarová.

56 Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism,” 176.

57 Heinrich Wölfflin, Renaissance and Baroque (London, Eng.: Collins, 1984).

58 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura, “O nábytku a jiném [About Furniture and Other Matters],” 470.

59 Irena Žantovská Murray, “Sources of Cubist Architecture in Bohemia: The Theories of Pavel Janak” (McGill University Libraries, 1990).

60 Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura “Hranol a pyramida [The Prism and the Pyramid],”398.

tops of its towers and cathedrals are consistently resolved with a pyramid or pediment.61 Josef Gočár not only explicitly portrays the pyramid in the capital details and dormer windows, but also more subtly in the pentagonal plan and mansard roof (Figure 9).62 The use of pyramid and the concept of superimposed volumes on the façade gives an impression of movement and monumentality, drawing our eyes towards the top, much like the Baroque cathedral would. This is further portrayed with the entrance pillars as they grow wider from the ground up, like an inverted pyramid.

Figure 9 - First and second floor plans of the House at the Black Madonna, 1912.

It is all the elements mentioned above: the articulation

Local Government Building Archives, Prague 1, taken from Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı ́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 16.

of the façade through vertical, horizontal, and oblique planes, plasticity, movement, play of light and shadow, and superimposition, which enable the House at the Black Madonna to merge with its setting in an abstract manner. More explicitly, Gočár relates the building to its immediate neighbours in a horizontal manner, leveling the cornices, windows, and roof line with those of the connecting buildings. He achieves a physical connection to the original buildings by keeping the statue of the Black Madonna in her original

61 62

Pavel Janák, Milan Vancura “Hranol a pyramida [The Prism and the Pyramid],” 398.

Platovská and Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, 12.

placement and tracing the outlines of the Granovský houses that originally occupied the lot in plan.63 The house therefore directly follows the line of the street and does not impose its facade. Consequently, the plan takes on a pentagonal shape that suits the Czech Cubist form. Having the retail front follow the street line also demonstrates Gočár’s attention to function and program.

The clearest disconnect between Janák’s methods and Gočár’s is in how they address the interior. A common criticism of Czech Cubism, according to Milena Lamarová, is that the Czech Cubists concentrated only on elaborating the expressive facade without giving consideration to the interior space, and simply placed a conventional plan inside.64 This could be attributed to Janák’s disregard for utility and social needs as a rejection of the modernist ideas he studied under Wagner.65 For Janák, design was for an inner need to create, not out of sense of duty or necessity, and that artistic expression and form should be the primary concern of creative work.66 Gočár, who never abandoned the structural logics of construction and material as he learned from Jan Kotěra, applied modern building technology to the concepts of Czech Cubist form, bringing the spatial exterior qualities of Czech Cubism to the interior.67 His use of a reinforced concrete skeleton frame, among the first of its kind in Prague, allowed for an open plan and large windows, both optimal for a department store.68 Again, Gočár’s attention to functionality, while opposing Janák’s principles, enforces his Czech Cubist designs. He filled the interiors

63

Platovská and Denti, 11.

Lamarová et al., Czech Cubism: Architecture, Furniture, and Decorative Arts, 1910-1925.

65 Thomas Ort, Art and Life in Modernist Prague: Karel Capek and His Generation, 1911-1938, 1 online resource (277 pages). vols., Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 81.

66 Lamarová, Žantovská Murray, and Centre canadien d’architecture, [Lectures on Czech Cubist Architecture and Design].

67 Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism,” 177.

68 Platovská and Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, 12.

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of the House at the Black Madonna with his furniture modeled in the Czech Cubist fashion, such as coat hangers, chandeliers, wallpaper, coffee mugs and built-in tables and chairs for the Grand Orient Café (Figure 10).69 The open plan allowed the spatial experience of the interior to be controlled by the interaction with the objects and their ability to penetrate the space with their oblique and crystalline forms.70 The slanted bay

Figure 10 - Interior of the Grand Orient Café on the first floor of the House at the Black Madonna, 1912. Štenc Archives, taken from Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef

windows brought the spatial experience of the façade to Gočár u Černé Matky Božı ́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 26.

the interior as well. During a reconstruction of the building in 1994, architect Karel Prager uncovered the original concrete load-bearing beams and discovered that they had been cut in a Czech Cubist manner, reminiscent of Baroque cathedral vaulting (Figure 11).71 This attention to detail shows how Gočár reconciled artistic expression with construction and material systems, a concept Janák did not think was possible.72 While Gočár’s interior does not feature as many explicit references to the Baroque style in the way the exterior façade does, a connection can instead be found in the abstract relationship between the Baroque and the Czech Cubist form and previously defined.

69

Figure 11 - Ceiling Beam on the interior of the House at the Black Madonna, 1999.

Jan Malý, taken from Marie Platovská and Giovanni Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı ́, Praga, Momenti di architettura moderna; 26 (Florence: Alinea, 2001), 34.

Lamarová et al., Czech Cubism: Architecture, Furniture, and Decorative Arts, 1910-1925, 53.

Lamarová et al, 53.

71 Bregant and Středoevropská galerie a nakladatelství, Kubistická Praha: 1909-1925: průvodce = Cubist Prague: 1909-1925: a guidebook, 27.

72 Vancura, “The Architecture of Czech Cubism,” 179.

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As Pavel Janák developed his theories with the Group of Plastic Artists, they left instances of Czech Cubism all over Prague in the form of chairs, houses, cabinets, lampposts, apartment buildings and much more. Each piece respectfully nestled into their contexts due to their creators’ ability to sympathize with the Gothic and Baroque styles in their designs, much like Josef Gočár’s House at the Black Madonna. It is still unknown why only the Czechs explored Cubism directly in architecture and applied arts. Historians debate that perhaps the highly theoretical phenomenon was too abstract, too conventional in regard to the interior, or too radical for modernism.73 However, the House at the Black Madonna employs the qualities of Czech Cubism in a fruitful manner, demonstrating that the design principles of Pavel Janák - the ones Josef Gočár chose to follow - could be used to design a concrete, cohesive building with an unconventional interior. As he animated the façade with angled sculpted volumes that evoke movement and visual dynamism, Gočár modeled unique forms unlike anywhere else in Europe.74 Using elements of the Baroque style in a new manner, Gočár’s design of the House at the Black Madonna simultaneously blends into its Old Town neighbourhood and autonomously stands as its own work of art, setting a precedent for the Czech Cubist movement in Prague.

73

Lamarová, Žantovská Murray, and Centre canadien d’architecture, [Lectures on Czech Cubist Architecture and Design].

74 Platovská and Denti, Josef Gočár u Černé Matky Božı́, Praga, 13.

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