Prague's Jurassic Art

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Prague is famous for its beautifully preserved Baroque architecture, but it also boasts impressive monuments to an even earlier era. Czech painter Zdenek Burian (1905-1981) captured the imaginations of Central Europeans with hundreds of carefully researched, evocative paintings and thousands of book and magazine illustrations of dinosaurs, early humans and adventure scenes. Some 400 of his works are on exhibit through July 10 at the Prague Castle Riding Hall.

The late U.S. paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould ranked Burian's work alongside that of American Charles R. Knight, the world's most celebrated painter of dinosaurs. Burian earned a cult following in the Czech Republic , particularly during the totalitarian era. "Burian, who along with his nation was denied freedom in the second half of his life, was able to encode it into most of his works," Vladimír Prokop, the exhibition's curator, says. "[He made] an effort to capture a life in freedom and harmony with unspoiled nature." Looks like he succeeded. tel: (420-2) 24373232