The Meeting at Krizky

After the death of Jan Hus, the religious reformation on movement spread especially in South Bohemia. His ideas were initially very simple and non-violent: his followers wanted to create the Kingdom of God on earth through a religious reform of the people in the spirit of the Gospel. Religious meetings would take place on mountains, such as Hradiště (later Tábor), Beránek near Vožice, and Oreb near Třebechovice. The movement’s members wanted to live like the first Christians. Their popular pilgrimages became “spiritually contagious” among ordinary people and neither the ecclesiastic nor secular authorities could do anything against it. However, the Tábor-based radical branch of the movement soon became influential. On 17 September 1419 at a meeting on Bzí mountain, the Tábor community issued a written proclamation to all loyal Czechs. It was written by priest Václav Koranda Sr. and it said: “Brethren! The vineyard is in blossom but the he-goats want to devour it, so do not walk with a stick but with weapons.” Another religious meeting, with armed participants, took place on 30 September 1419 on Na Křížkách, a height outside Jesenice. This place is now called U Křížků and is situated 20 kilometres south of Prague, in the direction of Benešov, near Velké Popovice. The painting shows Václav Koranda preaching, standing on hastily erected scaffolding above the thatched roof of a house. Camping under him are pilgrims who he has brought with him from Pilsen. We can see them during communion at a long table under the pine trees. They begin to use the chalice in communion, which later became a symbol of religious opposition. Some of the brethren are watering their horses, others are washing their clothes, preparing food and looking out for a procession from Prague. The whole landscape is immersed in ominous gloom with only a flash of light falling on the pilgrims and symbolically announcing the dawn of a new era. This painting also contains other symbols: the dead tree and the white flag represent war and death while the green pine and the red flag stand for life. The dark sky slashed by lightning expresses recent changes: Wenceslaus IV has died, the first defenestration in Prague has happened and Jan Žižka is establishing his first troops. The whole painting is conceived as a call to arms – to fight for the truth for which Jan Hus died.