| With Ferdinand Maximilian, Brokof was the main sculptor of baroque in what is now the Czech Republic and one of the main practitioner in central Europe of the dynamic style of Gianlorenzo Bernini. Braun probably made a study trip to Italy, traveled to Venice, Florence and Rome, where he had found the sculpture by Bernini and his followers. His first known work, commissioned by the Cistercian nuns of Plasy, is a sandstone group of the vision of St Lutgard (1710) on the Charles bridge in Prague. In this dynamic work, which, in contrast with statues of the bridge, is designed to be seen from a multiplicity of views, St Lutgard with weapons is embraced by Christs right arm. The group already has all the characteristics qualities of Brauns sculpture: the stone has the appearance of solidified lava or frozen water, the composition is dramatic and non-axial, while light, seen through openings in the group, is used as a component in the creation of constantly changing visual effects. A second group stone on the bridge, which represents san Ivo (1711), patron saint of lawyers, which housed a widow and orphans, makes its effect through the graceful articulation of their mass. From 1712 to 1720, Braun was at work on Graf von Sporcks buildings of Kuks in Gradlic. As visual embodiment of Sporcks ideas on improving moral conscience of mankind that produced eight statues of the Beatitudes around one of the true faith and two series of statues allegorical virtues and defects with the Angel of Blissful Death and the Angel of unfortunate death. The most famous and perhaps the oldest of life-size statues of stone is the St Jude, which leads dynamism to the point of ecstasy. The figure types designed to St Clement became part of the standard repertory of Brauns workshop and were repeated in other places, even in the church of Lysa nad Labem. The side altars in St Clement are decorated with accompaniment statues and especially with richly formed groups of saints and cherubs at its apex. Above the altar of San Francisco Xavier (1716), for example, San Carlo Borromeo gives thanks to Christ Crucified by the end of the Prague plague of 1714, while celebrating cherubs bind to the bones of the skeleton of death. The altars for the purification of the Virgin and St Leonard (c. 1717-18), with similar groups, also were carved by Braun himself. Some of the statues of the confessionals, including a lyrical representation of the Prodigal Son, are by Braun. The high altar of the pilgrimage church in Stara Boleslav, characterized by the dynamic asymmetry of their statues, dating from 1712-21, while Brauns more work, the 20-m in height Holy Trinity column in the plaza in Teplice, was built in 1718-19. During the 1720 Braun depended increasingly on his workshop (had six apprentices in 1725), and the quality of its finished work suffered as a result. This is apparent in works such as the sculptural decoration of the church of Santa Cruz in Litomysl, the funerary monument of Graf L. Schlick (d 1723) in Prague Cathedral and the monument to the Emperor Charles VI in Hlavenec, the latter instructed the suggestion of Sporck in 1725. New works in the 1720 are a crucifix and a Annunciation group for the convent of Plasy, which are of Brauns hand, and statues of the Vrtbovsky Palace and the Kolovrat Palace in Prague, for which the models only.During the 1931 Braun suffered from tuberculosis, which prevents its entry into the production of the workshop, while the oppressive political conditions of the reign of Emperor Charles VI seem to have reduced Brauns vitality creatively to a formula manners. He always only sketch models for the stone groups of Night and day (1734) in the Royal Garden, Prague, and for the decoration of the church in Horky (1735); work in the sculpture of the facade of St. Nicholas in Prague Old Town was delegated to his nephew Anthonin Braun (1709-42). |
