Fire dramas

27 Jun 2024 - 29 Dec 2024

Archdiocesan museum

(exhibition)

C. H. Fritzsche, Fireworks for the King of Denmark Frederik IV

The Olomouc Museum of Art presents one of the outcomes of a long-term scientific project on early modern festivities and propaganda. This time we focus our attention on firework dramas – musical-dramatic performances with pyrotechnics.

GUNPOWDER, FIREWORKS AND FIREWORK ILLUMINATIONS IN EUROPEAN ART 1400–1750

An exhibition and a scholarly publication will present the beginnings of the spread of gunpowder in Europe and its use for entertainment purposes. It will show the earliest firework displays, present the most influential masters of pyrotechnics and describe the highlights of the performances, staged in a unique moment and in a combination of ephemeral monuments, specific music and acting drama. Rockets, fireballs, pyrotechnic candles, mortars and cannons; manuscripts and old prints; prints and paintings will be the guides through the exhibition of the Archdiocesan Museum Olomouc.

Utagawa Kunimaru, Fireworks on Ryōgoku Bridge

Walter de Milemete, De Nobilitatibus, Sapientiis, et Prudentiis Regum