Václav Levý

Václav Levý (also known as Wenzel Lewy; 14 September 1820 – 30 April 1870) was a Czech sculptor. He was considered to be one of the pioneers of the modern style in Bohemia.

Biography

Levý was born in the village of Nebřeziny in Bohemia, Austrian Empire (today part of Plasy, Czech Republic). He was the son of a shoemaker. When he was two years old, the family moved to Kožlany, where they remained. He showed an early aptitude for carving, creating several figures of the Virgin Mary and crucifixes. His parents were not sympathetic, however, and sought to apprentice him to a carpenter. At the urging of a local parson, he was sent away for an education, first to a certain abbey in Plzeň, then to the Augustinian monastery in Lnáře, where he became a cook, later serving a brief apprenticeship in Dresden.

Upon returning from Dresden, he made the chance acquaintance of Antonín Veith, a landowner who was also a patron of the arts, and entered his service as a cook at his estate in Liběchov village near Mělník in 1844.

1850–1870

Veith fell into financial difficulties and died suddenly in 1853, but Levý was able to survive as a free-lance sculptor and soon received a commission from the Sisters of Mercy Hospital near Petřín Hill in Prague. Ultimately, however, he decided that he could not compete in the local sculpture market (which was dominated by the brothers Josef and Emanuel Max), so he applied for and received a stipendium to study in Rome. He died of his illness in Prague in 1870 and was buried at Vyšehrad Cemetery.

Works (incomplete list) 1846 – Čertovy hlavy ("Devil's Heads") in Želízy, near Klácelka 1858 – "Madona na půlměsíci" (Madonna on the Crescent Moon) and "Kristus s Pannou Marií a Martou" (Christ with Mary and Martha), National Gallery of Prague 1861 – Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia (in Carrara marble), now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 1864 – Saint James the Great and seven reliefs in the church at Polička 1866 – Saint Agnes of Bohemia, in the Votivkirche, Vienna