Troja Palace

I was surprised to enter the Troja Palace and find that it was an art gallery. I was expecting our time there to consist of exploring the gardens but there were some interesting pieces in the palace.

The first pieces of artwork that really caught my attention me were the multiple walls of dog paintings. (Preceded by birds and eventually followed by horses.) I thought they were quite strange, and found it funny that we would never put up any of these paintings in our home. Then, for the first time, I was struck with the (obvious) idea that tastes in interior decorations drastically change. I know that sounds so silly since we’ve been studying different art styles from the centuries past and are constantly bombarded with examples of art from the past in Prague, but the thought occurred to me none-the-less. Practically, how do interior decorating styles change? What that we do now will be considered totally odd in 50 years?

I thought about it again when we continued to encounter ceilings of frescos about Biblical characters and symbols, coupled with historical and mythical creatures. Our modern day ceilings are generally only ever white, even in wealthy homes. When did that change? And more interestingly, when did naked bodies and exposed breasts stop being acceptable? I generally associate their demise with the piety of religion, but these bare-breasted women all represented Christian virtues and were painted long after Catholicism controlled the empire. Interesting.

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