Jan Brokoff

Jan Brokoff, also known as Johann Brokoff, (1652 in Spišská Sobota, today in Slovakia, then in Royal Hungary - 1718 in Prague) was a baroque-era sculptor and carver of German origin born in Hungary and later working and living in Bohemia. He was the father of the sculptors Michael Brokoff and Ferdinand Brokoff.

In 1675 Brokoff moved from Hungary and worked at various places mainly in Western Bohemia. Three years later, in 1692 he settled in Prague and gained the burgher rights in Prague's Staré město. He and his wife Elisabeth ( _cs. Eliška) had four children: two of the three sons continued in his work (and the younger Ferdinand Maxmilian developed into the most prominent talent of the family), the third one Antonín later became the court poet in Vienna and a daughter.

The works attributed to him are of two kinds: some he made himself, others he only designed and let his son Ferdinand actually make them. Brokoff created the statuary of "Lamenting of the Christ" (Czech: "Pieta") placed on the Charles Bridge in 1695, however this sculpture has been later (1859) moved to the Monastery of the Gracious Sisters of Charles Borromei (Sorores Misericordiae Congregationis S. Caroli Borromei) under the Petřín hill in Prague. Other notable pieces include: a wooden model of the statue of "St. John of Nepomuceni", according to which the bronze statue, that is presently on Charles Bridge, has been cast, statues of "St. Joseph" and "Christening of the Lord" on Charles Bridge (both have been damaged during the revolution days in 1848 and today can be found in the lapidarium of the National Museum in Prague) and many other plastics around Bohemia such as the sculpture in the church of St. Barbara in Manětín, plastics in and nearby the castles in Klášterec nad Ohří, Červený Hrádek, Libochovice, Broumov, etc.