Dawnfall, kombinovaná technika na plátně, 100x150cm, 2016

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  Morfology Of Armours | 2016 - 2017

I chose this topic because I have been attracted by antiquity and even more from the Middle Ages since I was young. I was most interested in wars in these periods, not as such, but I was interested in different types of armor, shapes, decorating, functions, development, etc. With varying, improving, studying new and new armor, combining different techniques, I worked my way up until present.  I go to various castles and ruins where the main thing I care about is the armory, where I can explore different armor, their technical perfection, tightened to work with body movement, ornamentation, etc. I could draw details, decoration, construction, and sometimes I used the opportunity to wear armor, which I was always most excited about. Walk in it, move and see how it all works perfectly, how it is invented and thus be inspired in the production of their own armor, which of course were substitute.   Medieval European armor can be divided into different eras, the most definable being the 11th century. In this period, the most commonly used ring shirt (hauberk). Over time, armor has improved and a chain mail shirt with steel plates combined, mainly to improve the weapons themselves. It was necessary to constantly improve the protective armor and we get to the 16th century, when the armor is completely plate and paradoxically is not so much used directly in battles, mainly because of mobility and these armor were used mainly as tournament. Among the two most famous types of armor from this period are the Italian (Milan) and German plate sewer armor. They were characterized by rounded ornamentation (so-called channeling). This armor was also called the Maximilian armor.   The amount of surviving armor from this era was caused by the aristocracy of the nobility in tournaments, pomp and luxury leading to the emergence of the first representative armories. P. Klučina calls this time (16th century) aptly "The Age of Beautiful Armor" (Klučina 2004, 471). Slender-shaped gothic plate armor is quickly replaced by more bulging Renaissance armor. In the sixteenth century armor is routinely adapted to the fashion of that time, and is therefore highly variable over the centuries. Another feature was the decoration of plates, sometimes whole armor with etching, tausii and other decoration techniques. Some armor was distorted and re-decorated, where movement had to be particularly difficult and it was evident that it was only for representative purposes.   Although I can find the armory at various Renaissance and Baroque castles. But these no longer attracted me as medieval castles, either preserved with sightseeing or ruins, forgotten in the woods, with few walls left.   I also considered why even today young men and boys are interested in medieval armor, knights and battles. It is a difficult question as if I asked why today's guys and men are interested in airsoft, what would be the reconstruction of current gunfights, etc. But I think there is more in the Middle Ages, before there were rather contact battles, face to face, was some virtue, armor had a reason. Later also high artistic value and when armor lost practical use. I think then it was more honor for men to become a knight and fight in battles than nowadays to be a soldier, so they are replacing it with reconstructions, or a few weeks' concentration in the spirit of the Middle Ages, or spending free time with a group of historical fencing. that the Middle Ages must be experienced completely and not only superficially, including, art, architecture, etc. Not just “sword”.   All of this is also associated with the Romanesque and Gothic styles, as my favorite styles and the period in which the Middle Ages actually took place. So the medieval knight in the most complex plate armor, the ruined castle and the Gothic cathedral are the most perfect combination for me. Recalling the Gothic: the formats on which most of the paintings are painted have a distinct rectangular shape, oriented vertically. I evoke the Gothic cathedrals (with the exception of the English ones), which were tall and upward as closer to God. Just as the paintings show a chessboard motif, which I use very often in various variations as a representation of a medieval battlefield.   In the title of the topic I also mentioned antiquity. Yes, even from this period, although I do not pay much attention to it as the Middle Ages, I am interested in different types of armor, whether from Mesopotamia, Egypt through Greece and Rome. From this period I was most interested in the Roman belt (lamella) armor, which is absolutely technically perfect for me at that time and actually I worked on my own. This armor also appears a lot in my paintings, where I combine it with elements of medieval armor. For example, elbow and knee mice (flexible joint pads), iron link gloves, etc.   In my work I deal with the construction, functionality and decoration of various armor from different periods. From antiquity to the High Middle Ages. Especially the Middle Ages, which is central to me. I take this work differently armor on canvas. I emphasize the perfection of workmanship, decoration and in a way, the grandeur that I think the medieval knights worked.   Recently, I enjoyed working with combined techniques, which I conceive this work and build on the themes and forms of existing works. Drawing no longer dominates, as it was before, but now I enjoy experimenting and combining everything together. Of course, I also use drawing and a few paintings from the series are significantly drawing. It is not a drawing by pencil, charcoal, but by ink, brush or acrylic marker. In this work, I actually touched on virtually all the topics that I dealt with before. For example, I work with documents again. I used some old things I didn't like, but I didn't want to throw them away. So they served as a background on which I subsequently drew.   Again, I deal with bottom layers and layering and I tried to pull the bottom layers to the surface. I was very interested and interested in this topic. Finally, in this form I conceived and linked virtually the whole bachelor thesis. I worked with old, discarded paintings and new ones. For me it was such archeology and exploration. I completely paint the original painting (even the one I create there myself), create my own thing on the painting and then, for example, various scratching, wiping back to the lower layer of painting, which I want to some extent get to the surface. Then I try to combine and integrate into one especially ink drawing, using tape or unification with a wax filter, which by subsequent heating and dissolving on the canvas created an interesting effect. Even in this work I worked with layers, created my own materials and layers, which I again uncovered, painted, scraped, etc. Only here is dominated by the intention of the work and medieval armor, which should know that this is a major artifact for the whole bachelor thesis. Somewhere it is inconspicuous, elsewhere it is recognizable at first sight. I really enjoyed disguising my armor. I wanted to give the viewer a sense of necessity to approach and search the picture, even if it does not require attention to examine it closely. Actually, with this intent, I've always done paintings. Confuse the viewer a little.   The paintings show different motives of the medieval knight, where I deal with his various parts of armor and the typical and most common decoration, which is most often dealt with in Indian ink, where I emphasize a lot of detail of the drawing and that I always work with layering, which I now use mainly tape.   From a technical point of view, all the paintings, with a few exceptions, are on the canvas, which I did not write or edit, I enjoyed being in direct contact with the material, and I think it benefits the paintings more.