The Last Days of Jan Amos Komenský in Naarden

The Komenský family derived its name from the village of Komňa near Uherský Brod. Martin Komenský was working for his brother, a miller, when his son Jan was born on 28 March 1592. It is not known where he was born but Uherský Brod and Nivnice are referred to as likely places. Soon after that the family moved to Uherský Brod, where it belonged among the wealthy burghers and important members of the Bohemian Brethren. It was with the help of the Brethren that Jan was admitted to school in Přerov. He went on to study at Herborn Academy and at Heidelberg University. As a student he began to write Linguae Bohemicae thesaurus (The Treasury of the Czech Language) and prepare an encyclopaedia for youth Amphitheatrum universitatis rerum.

After returning to Bohemia he became a priest and a teacher in Přerov and later a rector in Fulnek. After the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and the Old Town Square execution next June, Komenský (Comenius) learned about a warrant to arrest him. He heeded the warning of Karel Sr. of Žerotín and took refuge at the Žerotín manor near Šternberk but then he had to escape from Moravia to Brandýs nad Orlicí.
In 1628 he definitively left the country. He first went to Leszno, Poland, and then travelled to England, France, Sweden, Hungary and back to Leszno. The Westphalian Peace Treaty, negotiated in 1648, resulting in long dominance of the Hapsburgs in Bohemia and in Comenius’s exile for the rest of his life. At that time he wrote Kšaft umírající matky Jednoty bratrské (The Testament of a Dying Mother, the Bohemian Brethren Community). Leszno was swept into by Swedish as well as Polish troops and was on fire for three days. It was then that Comenius lost his manuscript of Linguae Bohemicae thesaurus. He spent his old age in Amsterdam, where half of his complete works were published.

In Holland he would walk to the sea shore, thinking of his distant homeland, until he became confined to his chair due to his old age and an illness. His friend’s gesture of hopelessness and the grief of his wife and others suggest that the painting shows the last days of his life. The dream of returning home is going out like the small flame of a lamp on a sand dune. He knows he will not live to see his homeland as a free country. The silhouette of Naarden, where Comenius is buried, is seen in the distance. He died on 15 November 1670.