Michal Vitanovský

Life and work

He was born on 3 May 1946 in Klatovy. From 1961 to 1965 he studied at the Secondary School of Art in Prague and from 1965 to 1971 at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Jan Kavan's studio of applied sculpture. He has been a member of the Association of Medal Artists since 1990 and of the Umělecká beseda since 1992; with Milada Othová and Jiří Vlach he forms the art group Trojkolka. In the 1980s he began producing struck as well as cast medals. He designed the Order of the White Lion of the Czech Republic (1994); according to the Czech Wikipedia he also designed the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1990), although other sources attribute that order to Vladimír Oppl.

Coins and medals

The Czech Academy of Sciences lists among his coin designs commemoratives with St Agnes of Bohemia, with John Amos Comenius and for the anniversary of Charles University. He took part in the Czech National Bank's event Tribute to Czech Medallists. For Česká mincovna he designed, among others, the platinum medal for 650 years since the laying of the foundation stone of Charles Bridge (2007, engraver Lubomír Lietava) and the silver medal for the centenary of the Order of the White Lion (engraver Petr Kazda). For the Academy of Sciences he created the Honorary Medal for Merit to the Czech Academy of Sciences.

From the work in the AUREA range

The AUREA range includes his silver-plated bronze medal for the centenary of the reopening of the National Theatre (1983, 40 mm) and the silver medal Doubravka of the Přemyslid dynasty from the Famous Brides edition (2021, Ag 999, 50 mm).