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64. NArodnI Galerie v Prazc. Galerie natio-nale, Prague: la collcction dc sculpture tcheąuc du xix^B et du xx° śiecle est installee dans 1’ancien couvcnt de Zbraslav prćs dc Prague. L’ćdi-fice, ccuvre dc G. Santini et F. M. Kańka, datę du dćbut du xvm° sieclc. Dans la cour, bronzc du seulpteur Jan Śturza.

64. National Gallcry, Prague: the coUcctions of i9th- and 2oth-ccntury Czech sculpture are installed in the former monastery at Zbraslav, near Prague. This buiiding, the work of the architccts G. Santini and F. M. Kanka, dates from the beginning of the :8th century. The bronzc statues in the courtyard are the work of the sculptor Jan Sturza.

64. Narodni Galerie v Prazc. Galerie natio-nalc, Prague: la collcction de sculpture tcheque du xix° ct du xx° sieclc, installee dans 1’ancien couvcnt dc Zbraslav pres de Prague. Exposition d’ocuvres des seuipteurs J. V. Myslbek et B. Schnirch dans 1’ancien refectoire d’hivcr du couvent.

64. National Gallcry, Prague: the collcctions of I9th- and 2oth-ccntury Czech sculpture, installed in the former monastery at Zbraslav, near Prague. Exhibition of statuary by J. V. Myslbek and B. Schnirch, in what was oncc the monas-tcry’s winter refectory.

the National Gallery, through the establishment of a new department, has been extending its activities beyond the field of European art to that of Oriental art.

The fruit of all these organizational devclopmcnts is a large muscum containing very important collcctions. Today, the National Gallcry possesses 13,404 paintings, 3,957 pieces of sculpture, 37,027 drawings and 150,908 engravings. As to its internal organization, it is dmded into several departments according to the naturę of the collections and present needs and possibilities. Four departments of paintings have been established: European paintings up to the end of the 18th century; ancient Czech paintings; i9th-century paintings; 20th-century paintings (fig. 6 2). For the moment, the sculpture is comprised in a single department covering the period extending from antiquity to the present time. There is also a graphic arts department which includes drawings. Lastly, as already stated, an independent department was established for Oriental art; it consists mainly of a collection of Chinese art. All these departments have a restoration and rescarch laboratory, with workshops for restoration, photo-graphy and casting. They also have a joint library and a public information and art popularization service.

After the war, the situation was not favourablc to so ramified an institution. True, the authorities showed understanding for its organizational efforts and it even received adequate financial aid which enabled it to enrich its collections; but the most critical problem was that of premises. The distribution of the original collections, which dated back to beforc the war, proved to bc not only inadequate but often incompatible with fundamental museological requirements. It was nevertheless obviously impossible to concentrate all the collections in one buiiding, and a selec-tion was madę of various buildings, in which independent exhibitions of selected objects from the collections of each department were gradually organized.

The oldest part of the National Gallery, the collections of Czech and European paintings and the collections of sculpture covcring the period from the i4th century to the i8th century, was housed in the Hradćany district in the Sternberg Pałace, transformed at great cost. Inaugurated in 1948, the new premises of this part of the Gallery include many important collections of the I4th and 15 th centuries (fig. /<f, /3>), collections of Italian (fig. 60), French, German, Dutch and Flemish paintings (fig. 61), an exhibition of i7th- and i8th-century Czech baroque art and a collection of French paintings and sculptures of i9th and zoth centuries.

In addition, a selection of i9th-century Czech paintings was presented to the public in the former riding school—specially transformed for that purpose—of the Wallen-stein Pałace (fig. 6f), while the 20th-ccntury section’s collections were installed in the exhibition rooms of the Prague Municipal Library, the only pre-war premises which the Gallery has still retained (fig. 62).

The graphic art collections were housed in the Kinsky Pałace where storerooms and rooms for temporary exhibitions have been fitted up.

The collections of i9th- and 20th-century Czech sculpture were transferred to the ancient Cistercian monastery at Zbraslay, near Prague, where abundant space was available (fig. 64, 64). With its imposing appearance inspired by the formal Gothic motifs, the admirable architecture of this monastery, built in the early i8th century by Giovanni Santini, provides a splendid setting for the monumental statuary of the great modern Czech sculptor, J. V. Myslbek.

This distribution of the National Gallery’s collections does not, howcver, resolve the problem of their finał installation and arrangement. The topography of the city of Prague creates a special situation in this respect, and the problem assumes a different form than in other great cities. Prague has grown up on the slopes bordering the Vltava, and their contours have led to a concentration of the city on both sides of an axis running towards the river. This natural development has left no free space within the city, nor is there any site which could easily be cleared to make way for the construction of a vast buiiding to housc all the collections of a large muscum.

The succcssful installation of the ancient art collections in the Sternberg Pałace, near the Castle, gave rise to a plan for installing the whole of the National Gallery’s collections in a group of houses and palaces in Hradćany Square, between the Sternberg Pałace and Our Lady of Loretto. This would provide premises to house the various collections as well as a vast buiiding site, at present unutilized, in front of Our Lady of Loretto, in which large modern buildings could bc crectcd specially adapted for

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