Vaclav Vavřinec
Rayner

Czech painter, the largest in the Czech Republic XVIII century master of decorative painting, Baroque style. Painted perspective, allows you to achieve striking illusionist effects. Major works – painting at the Prague churches of the Holy cross (1720-1723), St. Thomas (1728-1730) St. Bartholomew (1734), St. Catherine (1741), and others also Wrote of paintings on religious themes and portraits.

Bohemian artist era of the flourishing of the Baroque in Bohemia.

Contemporary and follower of Petr Brandl, master of portrait and pathetic compositions on religious subjects, Rainer chose the main scope of its activities the mural in the art which before him in the Czech Republic worked mostly foreign artists.

The exact date of birth is still unknown. The name Vavrinec (Laurence), václav (Wenzel), the artist's whole life was consumed in reverse order.

Ian Rayner, father of the painter is one of the five sons of the architect of the Prague early Baroque Martin Rayner (Martino Wound) first acquainted the son with the basics of drawing. The initial scenic Vaclav skills acquired by copying paintings from the collection of his uncle, whose family lived for many years.

At 17 years young Reiner decides to get professional art education. It arrives in Prague, the picturesque shop - one of shop cooperatives, remained in the decaying heritage of medieval corporatism. Spent three years Vaclav from the artist Anton Ferdinand Schweiger, did not leave behind works and the rest of your life selling works of the famous student.

During the first six years after Reiner from the Department, which are hindering the development of his creative personality, the artist visited Italy. This indicates evident in early works a strong influence of Venetian and Bolognese schools.

Rayner was familiar with Flemish masters; he particularly admired the manner of Peter van Blumenau, of which the Czech painter imitated in his early works.

The role played and the work of his compatriot Jan kryštof Surpluses, closely associated with the art of Italy and Northern Netherlands. Liska was one of the first Czech artists turned to the fresco technique, is not popular among the Bohemian masters in those years.

Rainer became the successor of the Surpluses in the field of fresco painting. The impetus for this was given by Lescoe who nominates a Reiner to work on the murals of the Cistercian Abbey in Osiek have Duchcova in which he previously fulfilled the three sections of the image. His paintings, bearing still the marks of discipleship, Rayner had decorated the backyard and the sacristy of the Church. In 1714 he wrote eight frescoes of the martyrdom of the apostles, in 1716 - "the Holy family" and in 1719-m - a series of allegorical and biblical scenes.

Around 1720, by order of the powerful Czech noble family of Waldstein, Rainer prepares the family castle in Duchcov (architect J. B. mate). 22 oil portraits of the ancestors of the customer Jan Josef Wallenstein placed the artist on the walls of the main hall of the castle, the ensemble of which completed the canopy, illustrating the legend about the origin story of a noble family.

The artist has always attracted battle genre. The evidence of one of the first oil paintings Reiner "Battle with the Turks," (1708, national gallery, Prague). Episodes legendary battles were often the subjects of his paintings.

So it was in a small Church on the White Mountain in Prague, where once was the residence of the Czech king. In the dome of the chapel of St. Francis Rayner performed the fresco "the Czech army before the battle of White Mountain" (1718), recreates the atmosphere of the famous battle that marked the beginning of the bloody Thirty years war.

In the same year the artist performs a Grand "Giant-MAHIEU" in Hradcany.

Frescoes on religious subjects he was decorated with the rest of the castle, owned by philanthropist and art collector Josef Frantisek Chernin.

The highest achievement of the first period of creativity Reiner was the fresco of the dome of the Church of the crusaders of St. Francis in Prague's Old Place. In 1722-1723, the artist performed a ceiling "the last judgment", and in the aisles put the figures of the evangelists. In this work, the researchers see the roughness of the art style, combining two different manners: one associated with the sculptural isolation of the forms and the other with beautiful blurred contours.

In 1723, the artist invited to Upper Austria. For the library of the Carthusian monastery in Gaming, he paints the ceiling "Allegory of art and science". An unusual perspective is a powerful colonnade, typical of the Baroque migrating actors frescoes from the center to the periphery, a complex spatial construction located in a circle of the figures, confront steadiness of scenes from the old and New Testaments placed in the lunettes. The combination of religious and secular motives, free painterly interpretation gamingsa frescoes confirm the familiarity of the Czech masters from the Venetian painting of the Cinquecento and the latest achievements of Italian art.

In 1725, Rainer married the daughter of a noble citizen of Prague Anna Veronika Herzog. Financial position and the weight of the artist in society become even more durable. Then they were probably written in the oval self-portrait and portrait of his wife (both national gallery, Prague). Since that time, the portrait along with the landscape, was finally formed as an independent genre in the Baroque era, in his work occupies a large place.

In the second half of the 40-ies Rainer is already a recognized master. He is invited in Silesia, in Wroclaw, where in 1725-1926 years takes the frescoes in the monastery of Hochberg (destroyed in 1944).

The task of painting the huge Baroque Church, successfully solved in Wroclaw, stood in front of the artist while working in the Church of John of Nepomuk in hradčany. Illusionist mural that fills the space beneath the dome, plays coffered ceiling, inspired by the flying angels. It is bordered by a balustrade, which is played genre is treated in a historical scene. Free from the abundance of virtuosic molding of the inner surface of the temple is filled with murals depicting the life of St. John.

The second period of creativity Rainer, increasingly gravitated to the expressiveness and monumentality, mark the frescoes in the nave of the Church of St. Thomas (Apostle Thomas) in Mala Strana. Painting the ceiling divided into separate stamps with scenes from the life of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, decorated with lush stucco. They were read from different points of view, causing unusual compositional solution to the amazement of his contemporaries.

An example of an interesting coloristic searches are the frescoes of the dome of the Church of Loreta in hradčany, in which subtlety and freshness scenic artist approaches the Rococo. Here, as in other Baroque churches, painted Reiner helps to identify the architectonics of the building.

By the early 40-ies of the activities of Reiner as a muralist few fades. They were given six sets for created in 1737 the new Prague theater; the artist often refers to the landscape, which introduces mythological figures and genre scenes.

About 1739 he returned to the murals of the Cistercian Abbey in Zbraslav, painted living rooms with frescoes from the history of the monastery.

And next year, like completely changing his former manner, it is the most close to the Rococo style in the mythological frescoes in the castle in Mlada Boleslav.

Rainer-the artist did a complicated way from the top of the Renaissance to the late Baroque and early Rococo, always keeping the interest in the realistic treatment. From sculpturally powerful and emotionally intense compositions, he went to lighter and more delicately-chamber scenes. The key issues of art of the XVIII century - the relationship between light and color, composition, the ratio of figures to real and illusory space - was solved by the artist in his favorite them with the fresco technique. Not being an innovator, Rainer has completed a certain stage of development of the European Baroque, the highest achievements of which are presented in Bohemia of his creations.

The last work of Rayner (who died on 9 October 1743) was a series of frescoes for the Augustinian Church of St. Catherine in a New Place.

The artist is buried in the Dominican Church of St. Elijah in the Old Place, on the decoration of which he worked in 1735.