The statue of John of Nepomuk (Czech: Socha svatého Jana Nepomuckého) is an outdoor sculpture, installed in 1683 on the north side of the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. It was the first of the many Baroque images of saints to be installed on the bridge.
Description and history
Matthias Rauchmiller's clay model (1681) for the statue of St John of Nepomuk which was placed Charles Bridge in Prague in 1683. Its iconography (bearded priest leaning to one side, wearing biretta, holding crucifix, haloed by five stars) became the archetype for later representations of this saint.
The bronze statue is based on a clay model made in 1681 by Matthias Rauchmiller. The sculptor Jan Brokoff created a large wooden sculpture based on Rauchmiller's model, which was then cast in bronze in Nuremberg.
^"Saint John of Nepomuk: Matthias Rauchmiller". National Gallery of Prague. Retrieved July 10, 2018. A clay sketch (bozzetto) for the renowned sculpture on Charles Bridge, made for the alleged 300th anniversary of St John of Nepomuk's martyrdom, at the costs of Matthias Gottfried Freeman Wunschwitz. Johann Brokof executed a life-size carving after this small bozzetto – an authentic model for the bronze sculpture, cast by Hieronymus Heroldt in Nuremberg.
^"Die Kirche Sankt Johannes Nepomuk am Felsen in der Prager Neustadt". German-speaking Catholic parish of Prague. Retrieved August 19, 2018. In 1819, the gilded wooden statue of St. John Nepomuk by Johann Brokoff (1682) was inserted. It had served as a casting model for the oldest and the first Nepomuk statue on Charles Bridge and had thus become an iconographic template for further depictions of the Czech saint. It was a votive offering for the lifesaving of Freiherr Gottfried Mathias von Wunschitz, the clay model was made by Matthias Rauchmüller (1681, today in the Prague National Gallery), the bronze casting was executed by the Nuremberg foundry of Wolf Hieronymus Herold in 1683. (English translation of German original)
^"Statues on the Charles Bridge". Retrieved July 12, 2018. This statue is the oldest on the bridge. The clay model of the statue was made by Viennese sculptor Mathias Rauchmüller (1645-1686), based on which Jan Brokof made a wooden model (which is now on the altar in the Church of St. John in Skalka, Prague). The statue was cast by bell-maker Wolfgang Hieronymus Heroldt in Nürnberg in 1683 and paid for by Baron Matěj Bohumír of Wunschwitz, the Lord of Ronšperc and Bezvěrov (1632-1695).
