When the Emperor is Dying

To celebrate the seven-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Czech King and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV, the National Museum in 2016 has contributed with an exhibition focusing upon the second span of the sovereign’s life, namely upon his death and the related funeral ceremonies. From the perspective of the person’s last affairs and the key moment of Charles IV’s death and funeral, the individual chapters of this exhibition and published exclusive exhibition catalogue present remembrances of the materiál culture of the 14th and 15th centuries from the collections of the National Museum, supplemented by loans from other public institutions as well as from private collectors. The catalogue is divided into six thematic chapters, each of which contains a short preliminary study followed by a selective overview of the catalogue entries with regards tothe most interesting exhibits on display. The book approaches also the contradictory perceptions of Charles’s „second life“ by way of works of artists who mostly lived in the 19th century. Furthemore the catalogue offers an extensive inventory of domestic as well as foreign and the specialised literature used for given issues, as well as an index of the illustrations and complete list of all exhibits on display.

Publication is in Czech. Only one-page summary is in English.