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The mosaics in the central apse of the episcopal church of Eufrasius in Porec, built in the sixth century, present an inexhaustible source for research of iconography of the visual arts in time of Justinian. Given the fact that a large part of the corpus of early Byzantine art was not preserved, especially the one in Constantinople, mosaics in Porec are the key to understanding the role of visual...
The study is aimed at demonstration that palaces of ancient Roman emperors might have been the main source of Josip Plecnik’s imagination when remodelling Prague Castle (from 1920) for T. G. Masaryk, the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic. Plecnik revived (or tried to revive) many of its features – porticoed façade, basilican hall, cryptoportico, vestibule in the form of a rotunda, and park...
The Palatine court sculptor Paul Egell (1691 – 1752) was one of the outstanding artists of Southern German Rococo. Due to his fine carvings and use of precious materials, such as ivory or gilded lime wood, especially his small size bas-reliefs have always been highly estimated. Scholars as Adolf Feulner or Theodor Demmler first commented on the aesthetic values of these in the 1920s and 1930s and...
The presence and importance of the nymph in the late medieval and early modern art goes beyond the fashionable adaptation of a classicizing motif. None less than Aby Warburg (1866 – 1929) was the one who developed a passion for the godly girl, wandering to the bucolic springs and caves, whose name etymologically refers to a "bride". However, it isn't the iconographic afterlife of the nymph...
Considering the impact of Zimmermann's aesthetics on the Wiener Schule der Kunstgeschichte and the influence of Riegl's art history on the 20th century art theory, the relation between philosophical aesthetics and art history is a potent theme. The study focuses on two questions: firstly, what is the place of the aesthetic dimension in Riegl's art history and how does it differ from Zimmermann's aesthetics?...
Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937; London, Tate Modern) is one of the most famous paintings of the Catalan surrealist as well as the most original treatment of the Narcissus myth in the 20th century painting. Its originality aroused curiosity from the very moment it was created and the masterpiece still attracts attention of the scholars. Although the scholarly approaches might differ considerably,...
The aim of the paper is to highlight some aspects of two artistic objects which are well known in the Slovak art-historiography and also to open the topic for further discussion. The first object is one of the oldest works of Slovak art and it belongs to a set of gilded bronze plaques from the Old-Slavonic fort of Bojná near Nitra, which dates back to the beginning of the 9th century. The second object...
The Chapel of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany in western Slovakia is dated to the period from the 2nd half of the 9th century to the 1st half of the 10th century. The radiocarbon analysis of the wood residues from the cavity in masonry dates the building to the year 951 ± 60 (i.e. 891 – 1011). The completely preserved intact primary pre-Romanesque window openings were discovered in the north wall...
A review of the baroque iconography of various orders of the knights of the Cross (inter alia with the red heart, with the red star) reveals that their imagery was based on the motives and scenes typical of Christian art – like the Wood of Cross, its founders (St. Helene, St. Macarius) and defenders (Constantine the Great, Heraclius, holy knights). However, the study of written sources created by...
The paper discloses new facts about the initial period of reception of the well-known character heads, today titled as study heads, by sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Their first owner was in the years 1792 – 1805 hitherto almost unknown Franz Strunz, the first exhibitor and the author and publisher of the first catalogue. F. Strunz was an enthusiast and supporter of the ideals of the Enlightenment,...
The paper is dedicated to mapping relationships of sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt with Switzerland, based on archival sources (correspondence) in two important institutions at Zurich: in the Zentralbibliothek and in the graphic collection at the Kunsthaus Zurich, uncovering new facts about the life and work of this significant artist. The writers of most of these letters are two artists coming...
In Europe, Calvaries were the substitutes of the sacred place of martyrdom of Jesus Christ. Their importance grew with the development of religious life and the limited possibility of pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The Calvary tradition has medieval roots, but its intensification took place only from the 15th century onwards. In the case of Calvaries, the mathematically thorough topography of Jerusalem,...
In 2011, a sensational discovery was made in the former Cistercian presbytery in Cieplice Slaskie Zdroj (Warmbrunn), currently a district of the city of Jelenia Gora (Hirschberg) in Silesia: a collection of almost 90 baroque frescoes was discovered beneath layers of plaster. Among these was a cycle of estimated 54 paintings (only 26 were actually uncovered) dedicated to the persona of St. Bernard...
The attempts to revive and emulate the early-Christian art undertaken after the Council of Trent, was primarily a kind of monument conservation programme. Such efforts had illustrated the return of the church to its sacred apostolic tradition, with a limited scope to places where the monuments dating back to the first centuries in the history of the Church had been preserved, that is chiefly to Rome...
The overarching theme of the issue is the early modern culture and art of religious orders in Central Europe, corresponding with the editor’s professional interest as well as unfinished research of the past few years into sacred art of the early modern age, with an emphasis on monastic culture. The editor has developed the Central European dialogue pertaining to this many-layered and, in the past...
Portrait galleries of bishops have been known in the Latin Christendom since the early Middle Ages, attesting the important role that the ius imaginum – originally a major privilege of Roman patricians – had played in the propaganda of the Church. Of the thirteen portraits that have survived to this day in the portrait gallery of the cloisters of the Franciscan friary in Krakow, a unique example of...
The existing library building of the Cistercian Monastery in Zwettl (Lower Austria) was built relatively quickly after a previous building in the years 1730 to 1732 and then, after completion of the painting decoration by Paul Troger (1733), also furnished. The building process and the intentions regarding the library system are easy to follow thanks to archival – so far unpublished – sources. They...
The altar sculptures for the Dominicans and Jesuits in Lublin realized around the same time – in the late 1750s and early 1760s – are the best-known figurative works made by Sebastian Zeisel. They use high quality, fully developed rococo plasticity in the luminaire of the baroque theatrum sacrum. The works for Lublin most fully revealed the creative possibilities of the sculptor. The form was shaped...
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