A small set of 18th and 19th century prayer books from the estate of artist Jiří Šalamoun (1935-2022), newly exhibited at artforgood.cz, is just a small insight into the picturesque artistic world of handwritten decorated prayer books. These little books were very close to Jiří Šalamoun – such a creative author, in whose illustrations children's playfulness, humour, sense of the naive, descriptive and spontaneous meet.

The whole theme of manuscript prayer books carries several levels that are also interesting from the ethnographic, historical, iconographic, etc. Particularly noteworthy in this regard is the rustication of Christian art and its transformations. In the case of the art of the book of manuscript prayer books, we must appreciate the spontaneity, liveliness and dynamism of the artistic expressions, which unexpectedly connect them with today's modern art. 

 
Writing and decorating prayer books is undoubtedly a Czech-Moravian specificity that does not occur elsewhere, perhaps it is also the geographical and cultural background of our territory, a reflection of its natural creative potential, which has been and certainly must still be here.

text: Anežka Šimková