Exhibit 1

Since the second half of the 18th century glass paintings had been an indispensable part of vernacular interiors for more than one century. They featured the saints that were ascribed the role of protectors of the house, its inhabitants and the farmstead.

St. Cyril and Methodius appeared also among the patrons. In the remarkable glass painting from the City Museum in Klobouky u Brna the two saints are shown baptising the Bohemian prince Bořivoj. The painting is exceptional not only for its subject – the Cyrillo-Methodian theme appeared in glass paintings only exceptionally – but especially for its artistic value. It documents the work of the until now only one centre of folk glass painting in Moravia based in the South-Moravian township Ždánice.

In the early 19th century there were several workshops producing glass paintings for the local rural population of catholic and evangelic confession. Their representative collection has currently been kept in the museum of Klobouky.

The existence of Ždánice painters has been confirmed by one of the local pictures – a painted Reminder of the Tolerance patent of Emperor Josef II dated 1811 in Ždánice. The Baptism of Prince Bořivoj originates probably from the same workshop; it belongs to the works of the most distinctive representative of Ždánice glass painting of the second half of the 19th century – due to the lack of historical data he is called the Master of bushy eyebrows.