ANCIENT LEGACY IN SERVICE OF MONEY. A COMMENT ON SCULPTURAL DECORATIONS OF THE MORTGAGE BANK OF THE BOHEMIAN KINGDOM IN PRAGUE

The article exemplifies typical possibilities of use of the classical patterns during the late 19th century. This period was marked by a broad exploitation of the ancient heritage in its lively surviving parts. The sculpted decoration of façade of the Mortgage bank’s building could be a good example of it. It added some well articulated notions to the classical repertory, responding to the contemporary developments of economics. The main decoration of the building’s façade merged different elements to mediate a message of owners of the bank to both its clients and broader public. The use of classical repertory’s elements included their intentional fusion. The rhetoric of the bank façade’s decoration culminated in a sculpted personification of “Capital”. This sculpture mixed elements of an image of Roman imperator/victor with Fortuna in a sophisticated and inventive way. It covered a reality of modern market economics with its turbulencies by an image of a both powerful and supportive being to create an attractive sign of the bank.