- Condition: MNH (**)
- Year: 2015
- Catalogue: 599 Pofis
- Number(s):
**Slovakia NEW !!! 2015
Fuul / 10x / Stamp
booklet
Easter 2015: Christmas motifs in the Work of
Karol Ondreička (1898 – 1961)
POFIS
599 Date of issue
13.11.2015 Face value
0.45 €
Karol Ondreička frequently devoted himself to the topic of the
Madonna with Child in his works of art. There was probably no other
Slovak artist in the first half of the 20th century who would have
portrayed her with such a degree of varying creativity as he did.
The first picture in the series, Madona slovenských hôr (Madonna of
the Slovak Mountains) (1928) caused a stir in the Slovak cultural
public since Ondreička succeeded in combining traditional
Christian iconography with the typical Slovak mountain landscape
where flocks of sheep graze under the supervision of shepherds and
a wayside shrine or Calvary cross can be seen here and there in the
background.
In 1930s and 1940s, this picture, now lost, was followed by
numerous other variants – the author set the Virgin Mary with
Child Jesus, painted in the style of late Gothic or early
Quattrocento, into a mountain environment or sometimes directly
into the centre of a forest, among shepherds, woodcutters and even
climbers. In other pictures Ondreička dressed the Madonna in
folk costumes of specific Slovak regions.
The concept of Horská Madona (Madonna from the Mountains) from 1939
apparently built on its famous predecessor, as if transferred from
the 14th − 15th century altar pictures to the pasture of a
submontane countryside. The Madonna receives a tribute from a young
married couple who bring a symbolic “scapegoat” and
another sheep of the herd is shown licking the bare knees of the
Child Jesus. A basket of fresh forest strawberries stands in the
foreground. Karol Ondreička employed iconographic principles
to emphasize the intimacy, the humble familiarity of “a holy
picture”.
Naturally, the motif of Madonna with Child is only loosely
connected with the holyday of the Birth of Christ. However, the
solely Christmas motif is expressed by a graphic ex libris, the
Child of God opens his arms to accept His Mother or the entire
world. He hovers over the snow-covered Slovak country and above a
cloud that may let more snow fall.
Aurel HrabušickýIssue number POFIS 529 Date of issue
01.03.2013 Face value 10 x 0,65 €
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