Karel Škréta

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Karel Škréta Šotnovský ze Závořic (1610–1674) was a Bohemian Baroque painter known for portraits and church art. He came from a noble Protestant family that once ran mills in South Bohemia and grew up in Kutná Hora and Prague. His father died when he was three, and he received a solid education. It is not certain where he learned to paint, but he may have trained at the Royal Court with Aegidius Sadeler.

When the Thirty Years’ War began, Protestants were pressured in Prague, so Škréta fled to Saxony and then studied in Italy. In Venice he studied Veronese, Tintoretto and Titian, and in Rome (1634) he joined the Bentvueghels under the name Slagzwaart. After about a year he returned to Saxony, then came back to Prague in 1638, converted to Catholicism, and began to receive church commissions. He opened a studio in 1645, led Prague’s painters’ guild from 1651 to 1661, and painted portraits as well as altarpieces at several churches, including Our Lady before Týn, the Church of Saint Procopius, Žižkov, and St. Wenceslas Church in Zderaz.

Škréta had a strong influence in Prague and other Czech cities; many streets are named after him. His notable work includes Saint Martin dividing his cloak with a beggar (1645). He died in Prague in 1674 at about 63 or 64 years old.