Illustrators on the road: New exhibition explores travel from Renaissance to the present day
How did people record their journeys four hundred years ago, and how do illustrators do it today? A new exhibition by the LUSTR illustration and comics festival at Prague’s Star Summer Palace brings together historical travel diaries, maps and drawings from the Czech National Library with work by contemporary illustrators. I went to have a look and spoke to curator Barbora Müllerová.
“It's actually the second exhibition we've made together with the National Library of the Czech Republic. The first one that we were invited to do by the National Library was focused on herbariums and bestiariums.
“We made the same concept: we chose contemporary illustrators working now in the Czech Republic who are somehow interested in taking inspiration from medieval and early modern prints and illustrations. And you can see this inspiration in their work.
“Because this exhibition was a really nice cooperation and went really well, we wanted to continue in this spirit. So we chose travel diaries and maps because you can find these in Czech collections.”
Looking at these travel diaries, maps and journals that were made hundreds of years ago, what do they have in common with today's illustrations?
“Actually, they have quite a lot in common. When you go abroad and sketch what you see around you, it doesn't change that much throughout the years.
“So quite often, people sketch people who are living abroad. In those places, there are customs, fauna, flora, some rituals sometimes, and it doesn't change that much.
“What changes are the techniques of printing. So when it comes to the sketchbooks, it's really the same thing. But when it's a printed book, it actually looks very different because we have here books printed in the Renaissance.
“These, of course, look very different from books from the 18th century and from books that are printed today.”
So when you were pairing these historic illustrations with contemporary ones, what are some of the surprising couples that came out of this?
“Some pairs worked really well. When we found some books in the archives of the National Library, we were really surprised by how well they fitted together.
“The contemporary work we wanted to show included sketches and original drawings by Slovakian illustrator Livia Suchá. We paired these with The Cavalier Journey of Alexandre de Rogissart through Italy. She also spent her Erasmus study in Italy.
“Basically, they were both sketching the same places. These are places that are still really nice to visit in Italy, and they actually don't look that different.
“And both of these journeys were made to gain some education. That was the main spirit of the Cavalier journey. And I think that in this light, you can see Erasmus studies as a Cavalier journey of today.
“There was also a nice fit between Salomon Schweigrer and his work. He wrote a book about his journey to Constantinople and Jerusalem, depicting the caravans that he was travelling with, and we paired it with drawings by comics artist Matyáš Namai and his tramp legend, or bushcraft legend, about a silent, let's say, caravan wandering through forests at night.”
You said that looking at those old pictures and comparing them with today's, there are many similarities. Still, did you also notice some major differences?
“I think that the biggest difference is in the reason why we are travelling. Because in Renaissance times, which is the era of our oldest exhibits, people were mainly travelling because they wanted to visit places that were connected with the Bible and Bible stories, and where the saints were buried. So it was Jerusalem, Venice, Loreto later, and so on.
“Then it changed a bit, and the journeys were mainly made to get education, to get to know new places, find new species, and also bring our belief elsewhere.
“And now we are mainly travelling just to have fun, which is a huge difference, because in the past, it was quite dangerous. You were risking your health and life and money, and it was not a really easy thing to do.
“So I think that the main difference lies in this, and in the reason why we are actually doing it.”
And finally, if you were to pick just one art object from this whole exhibition, what would it be?
“For me personally, it would be Cestopisák, the sketchbook from Josef Váchal, who is a self-taught graphic artist and a really outstanding figure of Czech art.
“This is his sketchbook from quite a little trip he made in the Žďárské vrchy mountain range with his girlfriend and one of his friends.
“And it was a huge experience for me to hold this object in my hands. We could choose just one page that we show in the exhibition because it's not possible for so many people to touch it.
“But it was a huge experience to be able to go through his drawings that he made on this little journey.”
And I guess also a very difficult decision to make which page you will display.
“Yeah, this was the biggest discussion about his Cestopisák.”
