CHRIST'S JOURNEY TO GOLGOTHA THROUGH THE STREETS OF JERUSALEM

Johann Daniel Herz st., View of Jerusalem with the Passion of Christ, c. 1735, etching with copper engraving, 819 x 1210 mm, Museum of Art Olomouc

Herz depicts Jerusalem from a bird’s-eye view as a fortified city filled with buildings and a vast number of figures, among which numerous biblical scenes and locations can be discerned — above all, the key episodes of Christ’s Easter story, unfolding all at once within a single moment. The print, however, cannot be viewed solely as a remarkable work of art; equally compelling is its function, closely connected with the devotional practices of virtual pilgrimages and the repeated re-enactment of the events of Easter.

Palestine, regarded since the earliest times as the Holy Land (Terra Sancta), was an authentic landscape of memory for Christians, to which the first pilgrims began to journey soon after Christ’s death. However, going on a pilgrimage was not easy: high costs, the time required, and dangers associated with the journey made the pilgrimage a goal that was quite hard to reach for many believers. As early as the Middle Ages, specific techniques therefore developed to help construct an image of Jerusalem beyond time and space — in the mind and heart of the pilgrim. For such imaginary journeys to sacred places, devotional texts were used alongside pilgrimage accounts, souvenirs, travelogues, maps, and certain works of art. Examples of some of these accompany Herz’s print in the exhibition, which has been substantially revised for the Strahov Monastery and enriched primarily with works from its own collections.

The Premonstratensian Monastery at Strahov is connected to the theme of the exhibition and to Olomouc through several important associations. A key role among these is played by its founder, Jindřich Zdík, Bishop of Olomouc, who was also a two-time pilgrim to Jerusalem. In medieval sources, the Strahov Monastery is additionally referred to as Mount Zion (Mons Sion), and its topography is symbolically linked to Jerusalem. These circumstances already gave rise, twenty-five years ago, to the exhibition Zion – Jerusalem – Prague, to which the current exhibition project loosely follows up.