Mercury rides the skies in a chariot drawn by two cockerels or roosters. Sgraffito on Renaissance facade of burgher or town house on Horni náměstí (Upper Square) in Slavonice, South Bohemia, Czechia. The property displaying this sgraffito of Saturn, alongside other Roman gods and goddesses, is Horni náměstí 517.
Slavonice, South Bohemia, Czechia: sgraffito on Renaissance facade of a burgher or town house on Horni náměstí (Upper Square) in the historic centre of Slavonice. The house displaying this sgraffito design is Horni náměstí 517, originally a Gothic two-storey house, rebuilt in 1559. On its facade, the house bears fragments of sgraffito decoration which date from 1559 - the date was found in sgraffito above the entrance portal. Mercury is one of seven planetary deities riding in chariots across the skies that run in a horizontal band below the first floor windows of Horni náměstí 517. On the left of this image is Saturn, holding a scythe. Mercury, Roman god of merchants and shopkeepers, sits in a chariot pulled by two cockerels or roosters. In Mercury’s right hand is a sceptre, around which two snakes coil. An emblem of a woman with long hair is in his chariot’s wheel. Below, a scene from life on earth comprises a dog lying down and two male figures at a table, often referred to as an astronomer and a postal clerk. A figure wearing a hat stands and points to the sky with one hand, perhaps dictating to a man writing. In the centre of the table is a globe, a book and a triangular object. Slavonice, a small town lying close to the Austrian border, in the historical region of Moravia, was founded in the 1100s CE and expanded in the 1300s. It owes its current appearance to the building and rebuilding of many houses in the 1500s, when the town was established as a post stage between Prague and Vienna. The above information on sgraffito decoration of Horni náměstí 517 draws on research by Michaela Musilová, compiled for a History of Art Bachelor Thesis at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice in 2014.
Size: 4182px × 2777px
Location: Slavonice, South Bohemia, Czechia / Czech Republic
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1500s, 1559, 16th, 2, 7, 517, ad, architecture, art, bohemia, burgher, ce, century, chariot, cockerels, coiled, coiling, commerce, czech, czechia, , dated, decorated, decoration, deities, deity, design, dog, drawn, earth, exterior, external, facade, finance, front, frontage, globe, god, gods, heaven, heavens, holds, horni, house, illustration, kerr, life, man, merchants, mercury, moravia, mythological, myths, ornamental, planetary, renaissance, republic, riding, roman, roosters, scenes, scepter, sceptre, sgraffito, shopkeepers, skies, sky, slavonice, snakes, south, square, terence, terrestrial, town, upper, wall, wheel, worldly, writing, áěstí
