Art History


Čestmír Cimler

Title of Contribution:

Time:

How can the concept of commandery, which was not used in the Midde Ages, be correctly interpreted?

9:00

9:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles Univeristy / Catholic Theological Faculty / Institute of Christian Art History

Abstract of the contribution:

The objects of knightly, crusading or purely hospital orders created in the Middle Ages are most often referred to as commanderies. It is important, however, that in the period we are dealing with (12th - 15th centuries) this term was not used/unknown. It can represent both complexes of buildings that are similar in character to typical monasteries (Strakonice, Praha – Malá Strana, Český Dub), as well as a castle (Mailberg, Templštejn), a fortress with a church/chapel (Bubikon, Pičín, Hostěradice), or a simple parish center (Marchegg, Krnov, Plzeň). For this reason, it is quite difficult to navigate this issue. So far, apart from one expert article by Libor Jan and Vít Jesenský, which was focused only on Knights Hospitallers objects located in the territory of South Moravia, no attempt has been made to provide a clear explanation of how to actually define the term commandery more precisely. A certain link between the objects of outstanding diversity are, for example, their floor plan layout, internal layout, etc. However, these links do not solve the question of how to interpret or understand it as a result. Therefore, in this contribution, we will also focus on the historical and methodological development of the use of this traditionally used, but in short, modern and extremely simplistic term in the vast majority of European countries.

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Filip Facincani

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Charles Univeristy / Faculty of Arts


9:30

10:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles Univeristy / Catholic Theological Faculty

Abstract of the contribution:

The main aim of this contribution is to present one typological variation of medieval Masons´ Mark and propose its hypothetical function. This variation is made in alphabetical manner and consists of two or maybe more capital letters. The main question of this contribution is: Could these compound alphabetical marks (occuring across time and territorial boundaries) have served as distribution signs related to the delivery of building stone, or they were used simply as a specific form of a personal mark? If the first assumption is correct, then such marks can be subsumed under the concept of so-called quarry marks, i.e. a marking system that was the practical product of one of the processes from the quarrying, dressing or delivery of the stone blocks.

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Garaiová Jana

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Stove tiles with Saint Margaret as a Part of Knightly Iconography


10:00

10:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Comenius University Bratislava / Faculty of Arts

Abstract of the contribution:

This contribution offers an interpretation of Knightly Iconography with Saint Margaret as part of it, based on archaeological finds of stove tiles. Iconography on tiled stoves had not only a decorative role in historical interiors, but also a very important representational role. Design of the tile stove was related to the wealth of the holder (or owner) and to its location within in the room, and in the building. Tile stoves with artistic decoration can be found in the representative spaces of castles, burgher houses, town halls, monasteries, and other church buildings. In these places, they point to a devotion to religion and way of self-representation of the owner (or customer). It is assumed that the tile stoves were built from individual pieces of ceramic tiles. It is suggested that there could be more than one motif on one tiled stove. It could contain a group (series) of saints according to the choice of the owner of the house, castle, manor house. Saint often represented the patrons of individual members of a family, city, craft, or country. The tiles could also combine several different iconographic themes; secular, sacral and decorative in one stove. However, in the modern reconstructions of historic tiled stoves, archaeological findings are mostly divided into two iconographic units: secular and sacred. Depiction of St. Margaret (Margaret of Antioch) represents a great example of the connection between sacral iconography and a fantastic animal. She was often depicted like stabbing a dragon with a spear or coming out of it untouched. Dragon also connects St. Margaret with a knightly culture. There is a possible interpretation that the tile with St. Margaret was placed as part of the knightly theme and not in the series of saints.

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Patrný Michal

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Dutch responses to the work of the Prague Cathedral Workshop


11:00

11:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles Univeristy / Catholic Theological Faculty / Institute of Christian Art History

Abstract of the contribution:

In this paper I would like to focus on the personality of the builder Rutger van Kampen (in the Netherlands referred to as Rutger van Keulen). His date of birth is unknown, but according to the Dutch transcription he probably came - like the Parliers - from Cologne. His father, Michael von Savoyen, is listed as one of the builders of the Cologne Cathedral in 1353. The Savoyens were even related to the Parléř family; Michael's younger son, also Michael, later married Peter Parléř's sister.

The earliest mention of Rutger dates back to about 1361, when we find him already in the Dutch town of Kampen, where he was granted burgher rights as "Rotgher Micheelszoon van Coeln" in 1363. In 1369, the local town council signed a contract with him concerning the restoration (but rather the completion) of the local churches of St. Mary and St. Nicholas.

It is very noteworthy that Rutger is documented as a stonemason on the construction of Prague Cathedral in 1372-1373, and his brother Johannes also worked there between 1373 and 1374. His other brother Michael remained in Prague until 1384, marrying the daughter of Peter Parléř. The work in the Prague building works undoubtedly influenced Rutger's later work greatly.

It is documented in sources that in 1391 Rutger concluded a contract for the completion of the city church of St. Peter in Leiden, and he is also credited with a share in the construction of the church of St. Mary in Amsterdam (Nieuwe Kerk, after 1408) and the church of St. Mary in Harderwijk.

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Petra Šebelová Hnilicová

Title of Contribution:

Time:

The Madonna Del Latte from Bruntál. Imagination, Inspiration and Interpretation in the Baroque Context


11:00

11:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Masaryk University

Abstract of the contribution:

This case study about The Madonna Del Latte or “The Nursing Madonna” from Bruntál will undertake the Aesthetic viewpoint in an attempt to clarify the role of remarkable Renaissance paintings (such as the Madonna Del Latte) through the terms of imagination, inspiration and interpretation, and in the context of Baroque culture.

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Ondřej Šindlář

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Painting workshop around 1500 as an interpretive challenge: Notes on the Budňany Altarpiece Workshop


12:00

12:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles Univeristy / Catholic Theological Faculty / Institute of Christian Art History

Abstract of the contribution:

A specific problem of research on the painters' workshops in Bohemia is the huge lack of written sources on the painters' activities and the practical impossibility of linking them with the surviving works. The primary source for the study of painters' workshops is therefore often randomly preserved anonymous works. Most of the painting workshops in Bohemia can only be traced by artificially constructing them on the basis of the stylistic similarity and technological affinity of the surviving works.

The second problem with research on late Gothic panel painting in Bohemia is that the extensive synthesis literature of the last century has treated the subject from the perspective of immanent stylistic development with elements of nationalism, and an authoritative canon of essential paintings and fictional painters has been formed, but these have been interpreted without reference to the donors, the audience, or the manner in which they were produced. The updating of the subject has taken place significantly, but still only partially, since 2000.

If one examines painting of Bohemian provenance in understanding the work as the result of donor strategy, product of a painter's workshop, and as an object of a specific function, suddenly completely marginalized paintings and seemingly insignificant workshops come to the fore. One of these is the workshop of the so-called Master of the Budňany Altarpiece - an artificial construct of a workshop, which, however, contributes to the interpretation of the fund of panel painting in Bohemia around 1500 as well as some other "famous" workshops. Without clear written evidence, the picture of the workshop and commissioning environment is merely an interpretation of hypothetical possibilities and relationships.

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Clara Cheung

Title of Contribution:

Time:

How does the recent artistic turn to nature in Hong Kong help unearth Hongkongers’

cultural identity?

14:00

14:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

University of York / History of Art

Abstract of the contribution:

Natural landscapes and environmental sustainability has become prominent subject matters for contemporary artists in Hong Kong in the past two decades. This paper provides analysis for this artistic turn to the nature, by reviewing the socio-political context in Hong Kong. Since 2008 (10 years after Hong Kong being handed to China by British), there

have been different waves of protests to protect the rural villages and farmlands from the developments of high-speed railways and urban clusters in Northern Hong Kong. During the British rule, the green space of Northern Hong Kong has long been kept as a natural border between Hong Kong and China. The movement against urban developments in Northern Hong Kong began with concerns about environment sustainability and justice of land ownership. With many cultural practitioners and artists participating in the movement, artworks in the nature and about the nature quickly evolved. For example, an art exhibition to promote the rural life style titled, ‘Dances with the Green — an art exhibition on the

Northeastern New Territories,’ in 2014 invited Hongkongers to reflect upon their cultural identity which had mainly been associated with urban life style and rapid economic growth during the British rule after 1970s. Besides, artworks situated in Northern Hong Kong exhibit the border of Hong Kong vividly and unavoidably probe questions about the difference between Hong Kong and China. Referencing the Nativist Literary Movement in Taiwan in 1960s-70s, this paper argues that ‘Environmental Art’ developed in the past two decades in Hong Kong is a decolonial art movement to re-connect Hongkongers with their land, and, in turn, help Hongkongers recognise their unique cultural identity which is neither British nor Chinese.

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Ota Halama

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Illustrations of the book Genesis by Jan Konůpek

14:30

14:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Charles Univeristy / Catholic Theological Faculty / Institute of Christian Art History

Abstract of the contribution:

The contribution will present Konůpek´s (1883–1950) illustrations for the biblical book Genesis and will try to interpret them on the one hand within the framework of Konůpek´s entire work. On the other hand, the task is to place these illustrations in an artistic, literary and theological context.

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Bernadette Ščasná

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Artistic Narratives of the Holocaust: The Public’s Interpretation of the Film The Auschwitz Report

15:00

15:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Tallinn University / School of Humanities

Abstract of the contribution:

The efforts to create new representations of the Holocaust through various art forms such as films or literature are still ongoing. One of their tasks is to bring history closer to the newer generations and help them create an image of the past events. The case study that caught my interest is the recently released film called The Auschwitz Report (2020) directed by Peter Bebjak. The film is a co-production of Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany and it was screened not only in Europe but also reached the viewers all over the world. It brought the not-so-well-known story of two Slovak Jews who managed to escape the Holocaust to the wider public. The film helps the viewers understand the story and the characters’ feelings through many interesting artistic choices. Are these, however, enough to convey the message to the audience, or is more context needed? In this contribution I want to present my research of the film’s interpretation and reception. I focus on these two aspects in relation to the film because it is important to learn how such works shape the public’s understanding of the past. By looking closer into the reception it will be more clear what are some of the film’s attributes that are more successful (or less in favour of the audience) at representing the past and helping the audience create “prosthethic memories” (concept coined by Alison Landsberg) of a great and dark chapter of humanity’s history, the Holocaust.

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Kateřina Vajdáková

Title of Contribution:

Time:

A secretly locked Treasure Chest: Art Collections of Arnold Skutezky

15:30

16:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Masaryk University / Seminar of Art History

Abstract of the contribution:

The Jewish industrialist and collector Arnold Skutezky (1850-1936), who belonged to a group of private collectors engaged in the wool industry, was undoubtedly one of the leading and significant personalities of European collecting in his time. He represented a kind of ideal example of a collector who takes a careful and considered approach to build his collection.


During more than forty years of collecting activity, he created several collections as a collection of paintings, drawings, coins, antiques and art historical literature. What did these collections look like, what function did they fulfil, and where are these art objects today? Thanks to the reconstruction of individual collections and archival research, we find that collections reflect the identity of the collector as they are deeply bound to the interests and desires of their owner, who invested in them not only his material resources but especially a part of his personality. Individual units in different periods of his life served distinct functions: a form of self-determination, a way of representing social status or capital to be used in times of need. With the new research on these collection units and their reconstruction, the collections will avoid the oblivion that awaited many other private collections and their owners.


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Barbora Zelenková

Title of Contribution:

Time:

The Interpretation of Literary Region in Ivan Landsmann's prose

16:30

17:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

University of Pardubice / Faculty of Arts and Philosophy

Abstract of the contribution:

The literary region is a set of symbolic elements of human space, which is presented by a literary work. It consists of many parts that give meaning to a literary story and book. If we consider literature as a possible confession of the author (leaving aside the theory The Author is Dead from Rolland Barthes) - more precisely, every writer puts some autobiographical moments in his/her text. These elements and motives are so important for the final meaning of the book. The literary region is the author's space of his region, where he returns to his idea of the region - his home - as the safe place of his childhood. In the stories, we very often find returns to the home space and the home region, where the writer spends some time in her/his life. It has to do with memory and remembering, through which the writer returns to his region/home and describes it in his story. Remembering can be explained by memory studies such as the theories of Aleida Assmann, Maurice Halbwachs or Pierre Nora.

Related to this is the idea of returning home, as mentioned by Svatava Urbanová and Iva Málková in their book Coordinates of Places, where they discuss the motives of home in Czech literature. This work confirms the recurring tendency of returning to the home region/hometown, which the writer considers home and a safe place (in some cases not necessarily associated with a safe space).

As I have already mentioned, the image of the writer's region is a literary story. This image is a subjective interpretation of his space combined with the fiction of the story. At this point, we can think about authenticity – how much is the image of the described region that writers create the real space of the region? His region is certainly influenced by his experiences, his memories, and his point of view.

This concept of presenting the region is found, for example, in Ivan Landsmann´s prose, who was born in Havířov near Ostrava. His work contains motives that create an image of the Ostrava region and its mining culture. Ivan Landsmann was a miner in the mines of Havířov and Ostrava, where he gained experience of hard work and the specific Czech-Silesian industrial society. The Ostrava region is also his home area and in his literary work, he returns to the places of his childhood and home. This is reflected in his books and creates the Ostrava region of Ivan Landsmann.

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Tomáš Zmeškal

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Reality of Randomness – Zdeněk Sýkora’s Line Paintings

17:00

17:30

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

Palacký University Olomouc / Department of Art History

Czech Academy of Sciences

Abstract of the contribution:

Line Paintings of Zdeněk Sýkora, which he created from 1973 until his death in 2010, remain one of the most engaging and thought-provoking abstract paintings in the Czech Republic. Although they are accepted as the finest examples of the late 20th and early 21st centuries Czech abstraction, the interpretation of their “meaning” is still not final. In my research, I am inevitably forced to attempt to interpret Sýkora’s Line Paintings, although interpretation of abstract works of art is by definition never clear-cut.


Although Sýkora himself did not want to publicly interpret his own works, there are some hints what Sýkora demanded from his Line Paintings. In the Archive of Lenka and Zdeněk Sýkora, in Louny, there are drawings and construction plans, which to certain extent can help to clarify what he tried to do and in which direction he was heading. Sýkora’s Line Paintings are based on the use of mathematics of random constructions, which he continuously developed throughout his life. Although using random processes in art was established in Europe and in the USA since 1960s, Sýkora´s achievement of vividness and emotionality in his Line Paintings is still exceptional. As he developed his own system of composition, he relinquished to a degree authorial control over his work (including choice of colours), but at the same time he never lost his fine aesthetic sense of judgement. It seems that apparently natural forms which he randomly constructed are deeply rooted in his philosophy of creativity as extension of natural processes. My research suggests that search for “meaning” of Sýkora´s Line Paintings leads to philosophy of randomness on one side and aesthetics of human perception on the other. However, Line Paintings are not as such philosophical, but attempt to present some features of often inevitably overlooked reality.

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Pavla Minarovičová

Title of Contribution:

Time:

Beauty and ugliness in portrayal of crucification

17:30

18:00

University / Faculty / Department / Institute:

University of Trnava

Abstract of the contribution:

The subject of this contribution is inspired by an article by Sara Lipton and reflection formulated in response to this article by John Munns. Lipton describe the perceived dialectic between beauty and ugliness in crucifixion imagery in the late Middle Ages and nature of Christian perceptions of beauty and ugliness. Lipton also describes progression in the portrayal of the figure of Christ on the cross and assumes general increase in the overt portrayal of suffering with the passage of time. Earlier images depict Christ on the cross without pain, later there is increasingly realistic „ugly“ and painful portrayal. Even though this images portray pain, Christians still seems to find beauty in them. This contribution will present the paradox in the perception of Christian imaginaries and present similar studies relevant to the topic.

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Last change: November 7, 2022 09:35 
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