For more information, please write to info@lobkowiczevents.czor visit www.lobkowicz.cz

Celebrate the start of the fall season at the annual Wine Harvest Festival, or Vinobraní, which will take place at Roudnice Castle and throughout the city of Roudnice nad Labem on Saturday, 17 September, from 10:00 to 23:00.

Adult visitors can look forward to sampling wines from the Roudnice Lobkowicz Winery; touring the 12th-century Romanesque part of the Castle – the oldest section – with guides in period costume; visiting the baroque Castle chapel; and viewing vintage cars at a special exhibition in the town square (Karlovo náměstí, 10:00–14:00).

At the Castle, including inside the courtyard, the gardens and the Castle interiors themselves, children will enjoy craft workshops, falconry shows, face painting, pony rides, puppet theater (15:00–17:00) and a “Haunted Castle” adventure (20:00–22:00).

Also in the Castle courtyard: entertainment will be provided alternately by a variety of music bands and swordsmen demonstra- tions; Lobkowicz Catering will serve goulash, apple strudel and other Czech festival favorites; and Lobkowicz wine and beer will be available for purchase.

Be sure to be in the courtyard at 13:30 for the official opening of the Festival by Praotec Čech (Forefather Czech)!

For more information about the Wine Harvest Festival schedule of events, please click here (Czech only) or write to info@lobkowiczevents.cz. For directions to Roudnice Castle, please click here.

The evening’s program will consist of a lecture by guest speaker and Dvořák scholar, Dr. David R. Beveridge, whose enthusiasm for his subject and thoughtful presentation format transform a lecture into an engaging master class. Accompanying Dr. Beveridge’s talk will be the sounds of some of Dvořák ’s most beautiful compositions, performed by pianist Eva Matošková of The Prague Conservatoire, cellist Richard Žemlička of the Prague Symphony Orchestra and noted soprano Liana Sass, whose credits include the leading role in Puccini’s La Bohème and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

After a question and answer period, Dr. Beveridge and Mr. and Mrs. William Lobkowicz will join the members for light refreshments in the Balcony Room.

Members Events are cultural events organized exclusively for participants in the Lobkowicz Collections Membership Program. The next Members Event is scheduled for early December. To read more about the program, please click here. To become a member, or to inquire further about the program, please write to Barbora Palkosková at membership@lobkowicz.cz.

On Wednesday, 7 September, the Concert Hall of Lobkowicz Palace will fill with music not once, but twice. At 18:00, several hours after the conclusion of the Palace’s daily concert, members of the Lobkowicz Collections Membership Program will arrive to participate in a special event to mark the 170th anniversary of the birth of Antonín Dvořák (8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904).

Porcelain at Prague CastleRoyal Summer Palace, Prague – Now through 11 September

For more information about this exhibition, please see the May newsletter.

Nelahozeves Castle, Prince’s LibraryRare 16 & 17th-century books on medicinal plantsNow through 31 October

Lobkowicz Palace Museum, Piranesi Room Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Le Antichità romane, 1756Now through 31 October

Members Event: Celebrating 170 Years of Antonín DvořákLobkowicz Palace, 7 September at 18:00

Wine Harvest FestivalRoudnice Castle and the city of Roudnice nad Labem17 September, 10:00–23:00

Ending this Month: The Collections on Loan!

Ongoing: Exhibitions fromthe Roudnice Lobkowicz Library

Upcoming

Next Members Event to Celebrate 170 Years of Dvořák

For more information, please write to info@lobkowiczevents.czor visit www.lobkowicz.cz.

Mark the Calendar: Wine Harvest Festival is Almost Here

SEPTEMBER 2011

LOBKOWiCz

Lobkowicz wines line a table at the 2010 Festivalphoto: Veselin Cuparic

The chapel of Roudnice Castle to open for FestivalCeiling frescoes by Giacomo Tencalla (1644–1692)

photo: Veselin Cuparic

Spotlight On: Hygieia by Peter Paul Rubens

Among the most celebrated paintings belonging to The Lobkowicz Collections is that entitled Hygieia Nourishing the Sacred Serpent by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). The work, which forms part of the permanent collection at Nelahozeves Castle, dates to circa 1614, by which time Rubens was already a highly regarded painter.

The painting’s subject derives from Greek mythology. Hygieia was the daughter of Asclepius, the god of medicine, and in Rubens’ canvas, she is portrayed as a partially robed woman feeding a snake from a dish. She personifies health and cleanliness, both of which were important tenets in the cult of her father. According to Greek mythology, Asclepius not only treated the sick, but also brought the dead back to life, a practice that particularly displeased the god of the underworld, Hades, and ultimately led to the healer’s demise. Hades prevailed upon zeus to kill Asclepius, a wish zeus granted. in Hygieia, the deceased god of medicine, whose identifying symbol is the snake-entwined “rod of Asclepius”, is represented by the serpent and nourished by his daughter, in whose name the word “hygiene” has its origin.

Believed to have been brought into The Collections in 1681 by Ferdinand August, 3rd Prince Lobkowicz (1655–1715), Hygieia Nourishing the Sacred Serpent was conserved in 2000 by the highly respected former chief conservator of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hubert von Sonnenburg. The restoration, which was carried out at Nelahozeves Castle, was made possible by the financial support of contributors to The Collections; it is thanks to their generosity that this outstanding early painting by the great Flemish master can now be enjoyed in its full glory.

Lobkowicz Collections, o.p.s.* is pleased to report that the conservation and restoration projects planned for the second half of 2011 remain on schedule.

Restoration has been completed on the two Chippendale-style chairs profiled in the November 2010 newsletter. The chairs will be placed on permanent exhibition at Nelahozeves Castle in October.

Three months remain in the four-month project to conserve German artist Johann Bardou’s seven Poniatowski portraits, which were first written about in last year’s October newsletter. Three specialists – one each in the fields of pastel technique, paper and wooden framework – are at the helm of the preservation work, which is expected to be finished by the end of November 2011. The first phase of conservation has recently begun on the Lobkowicz Palace Museum’s twenty-six prints of views of Rome by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Nine of the works are currently at the restorer’s studio. The preservation process, which the remaining seventeen prints will undergo in two subsequent phases of conservation, will take approximately three months to complete.

About the Piranesi conservation project

The 18th-century Piranesi prints suffer from so-called “acid burn”, a condition caused by the paper on which they are mounted. Left untreated, the acid of the backing paper would continue to migrate into the paper fibers of the prints themselves, causing irrevocable damage. Conservation work will see the prints removed from their present backings and remounted onto acid-free paper. Light restoration work, such as the removal of marks or blemishes, will also be performed.

The first phase of this conservation process, which was profiled in the January newsletter, has been made possible by contributors to Lobkowicz Collections, o.p.s. The foundation continues to seek the funds necessary to complete the second and third phases of the project. The cost to conserve and restore each print is 3,500 CZK.

To sponsor the conservation of one of the Piranesi prints, or for more information about the project, please contact Veronika Wolf, Director of Lobkowicz Collections, o.p.s., at wolf@lobkowicz.cz. To read more about Lobkowicz Collections, o.p.s. and its mission, please click here.

For more information, please write to info@lobkowiczevents.czor visit www.lobkowicz.cz

Lobkowicz Foundation Nears 2011 Conservation Goals

For more information, please write to info@lobkowiczevents.czor visit www.lobkowicz.cz.

LOBKOWiCzSEPTEMBER 2011

Print of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls (Rome), Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 18th c.

Hygieia Nourishing the Sacred Serpent, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1614 (detail)

*o.p.s. (obecně prospěšná společnost) is a nonprofit organization designation in the Czech Republic