Art Institute of Chicago

Kuks Baden, Bohemia

Unknown Artist (German, 18th century)

Date

c. 1725

Medium

Engraving and etching (recto) and woodblock print (verso) in black on cream laid paper

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The aristocratic pleasures of the hunt pervade this expansive landscape, which was made to promote the new mineral baths of Kuks, Bohemia, a town situated on the Elbe River. The scene, set in verdant glades and imagined ruins, contains a numbered legend to the landmarks of the sprawling hills beyond. Count Franz Anton von Sporck discovered three mineral springs in Kuks and founded a church and hospital above the springs, reviving the area by the 1720s as a center for physical and religious well-being. His coat of arms appears on a cart in the lower right of the engraving. Von Sporck’s cultural and religious patronage continued through the end of his life, including his sponsoring of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Four Shorter Masses .

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