Leopold Billek Swallowtail Butterfly Study 'Schwalbenschwanz'

Leopold Billek: Drawings c.1820

This drawing forms part of a remarkable collection of works by the Czech artist Leopold Billek (fl.1820s). His drawings embody the spirit of the Renaissance man and that preeminent polymath Leonardo da Vinci—embracing reason, science and learning—and evidence an impulse to analyse and meticulously record through illustration. His diverse subjects cover botany, zoology, human anatomy, paleontology and volcanology, engineering, physics and mechanics, history, religion, heraldry and cartography, greek mythology and the fine arts.

This diversity of his subjects provides a fascinating way in to discover the various influences at work in the arts of Bohemia-Moravia. Billek's native Telč is a historic town of Renaissance and Baroque architecture of medieval origins, on the crossroads of busy merchant routes between Bohemia, Moravia and Austria. Key cultural influences in the wider area were the courtly culture of the royal Habsburg seat in Prague; the Italian Renaissance—brought by Italian artists and stonemasons from northern Italy; Gothic period architecture and medieval castles; and local folk art and crafts of the more rural Moravia. Billek's work, which combines elements of Italian Renaissance, Germanic medievalism and a sort of rustic individualism, seems to epitomise this fascinating melting pot of cultures.

It appears that Billek was involved commercially with the Austrian art dealer and publisher Joseph Eder (1760–1835), with an extant collection of copperplate engravings by Billek being published by Eder in Vienna. Billek is also known to have produced engravings after drawings by the German animal and hunting artist Joseph Georg Wintter (1751–1789). Parallels can also be seen between Billek's characterful figures and those of fellow Bohemian artist Georg Emanuel Opiz (1775–1841), and between Billek's meticulous maps and the cartographic plates of eccentric Bohemian artist, author and fencer Karl Timlich (1744–1825). Leopold Billek is nevertheless very much a singular hand and mind, who was careful to sign or initial many of his sketches and declare his work's originality with a resounding 'fecit Billek'.