Seats of the National Gallery Through Time

The history of the National Gallery and its predecessors can be told through the buildings that housed its collections in different periods. Since the founding of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art in 1796, its Picture Gallery was primarily located in Prague aristocratic palaces, whose owners were among the institution's major supporters and members. Each of these seats reflected not only contemporary ideas about art presentation, but also the changing position of the gallery in society.

The lecture offers a virtual tour of places closely connected with the gallery's history. It will focus on why the residences of prominent aristocratic families became the seat of the Picture Gallery and later the National Gallery, how the collections were installed in them, and how they were cared for. In addition to the Černín and Šternberg palaces, other buildings that shaped the gallery institution from its beginnings to the present will be recalled.

Lecturer: Radka Heisslerová is an archivist at the National Gallery, specializing in Prague painters' guilds and written sources on the history of visual art in Bohemia in the 17th and 18th centuries.