Papers by Daniela Rywiková
Convivium, Nov 1, 2018
Virtues and Vices Reformed? Visual Pastoralia in Fourteenth-Century Bohemian Art Depictions of di... more Virtues and Vices Reformed? Visual Pastoralia in Fourteenth-Century Bohemian Art Depictions of didactic-dogmatic images in the mural paintings in two Bohemian parish churches are unique in the Czech environment, and their possible meaning, function, and use in pastoral practice (cura animarum) have to be undrestood, particularly in the context of religious reform and devotional-moral transformation initiated by the Fourth Lateran Council. The first example is the image of scutum fidei, which appears next to the prominent Bohemian saint and Přemyslid dux St Wenceslaus in the former chapel of the Hradec Králové parish church, that was painted shortly after the mid-fourteenth century. The scutum fidei in Hradec Králové represents the oldest known Central European example of such a Trinitarian diagram, and it is considered here in its original visual context. The scutum in the Hradec Králové chapel should be understood as a multi-layered image with strong pastoral-educational power. It is "Bohemianized" by being the protective attribute of the Czech holy patron, St Wenceslaus, and part of his arma virtutum. The second case represents All Saints parish church in Zdětín; its presbytery is decorated with two unprecedented monumental paintings depicting the Seven Sacraments and the Seven Works of Mercy, together with a scene with preaching Christ and Mary Magdalene accompanied by the Czech-Latin text of the Decalogue. The iconographic conception of the Zdětín paintings is unique in Bohemian medieval art and was inspired by the period's catechetic handbooks.
Brepols Publishers eBooks, 2022
The town of Moravian Ostrava owned by the Olomouc bishops, developed during the 16th century mult... more The town of Moravian Ostrava owned by the Olomouc bishops, developed during the 16th century multi-confessional urban society demonstrating by its character the complicated religious situation in the Bohemian Lands. The interior of Ostrava St. Wenceslaus parish church was decorated in 1555 with wall paintings: One of them representing an Allegory of the Old and New Testaments and of Sin and Salvation. The iconography of the painting was inspired by the Lutheran iconography of the Law and Gospel illustrating Martin Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone. However, the Ostrava painting varies greatly from the original Lucas Cranach iconography. The author of the iconographic conception of the Ostrava allegory can be hypothetically identified as the Ostravian Catholic priest Jan Jilovský who was known to have served the local aristocracy sub utraque specie. Iconography of the allegory inspired by the Law and Gospel might well have been also a result of the priest’s poor theological knowledge and of the chaos of orthodoxy. Jilovský would seem to have been one of those “confused and married” priests about whom the Olomouc bishop Marek Khuen complained in his letter of 1561. However, it is possible that the Ostrava allegory may be primarily expressing, under the veil of “tolerated” Utraquism, the Lutheran idea of justification by faith, in a way that would not be obvious in a bishopric church. Such an original, unusual and compromise iconographical presentation was tolerable for the Ostrava bourgeois as well as for the aristocracy – of Catholic as well as of Utraquist and/or Lutheran confession. The allegory is not polemic but rather represents rare evidence in the field of Fine Arts of not only the religious transformation, chaos and orthodox vagueness but also coexistence and tolerance “by necessity” in the 16th Bohemian Lands especially in Moravia.
Brepols Publishers eBooks, 2021
The Legend of the Three Dead and the Three Living undoubtedly reflect the late medieval cultural ... more The Legend of the Three Dead and the Three Living undoubtedly reflect the late medieval cultural and social experience of death. That must almost certainly be a reason for its widespread dissemination throughout the Europe of the High and Late Middle Ages. The proposed study introduces all survived Bohemian examples of the Legend and interprets them within the broader European context, emphasizing the period's religious and pastoral practice and focusing on certain aspects of the Legend iconography. The allusion to corporal death as the 'death of the world' can be seen in the oldest macabre image in Bohemian medieval art in the Church of St Maurice in Mouřenec, visually linking the Legend with the Last Judgment and the Requiem Mass. The image of the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead in the Dominican church in České Budějovice corresponds well with a popular period prayer Obsecro te, often used as a general plea for salvation and a 'good death' at the end enclosed by a plea for a revelation of the death hour. The last representation of the Legend can be found in the memorial church of St Bartholomew in Kočí, where the motif documents the fact that such a macabre theme was also used by Hussites.
Brepols Publishers eBooks, 2022
Brepols Publishers eBooks, 2023
The town of Moravian Ostrava owned by the Olomouc bishops, developed during the 16th century mult... more The town of Moravian Ostrava owned by the Olomouc bishops, developed during the 16th century multi-confessional urban society demonstrating by its character the complicated religious situation in the Bohemian Lands. The interior of Ostrava St. Wenceslaus parish church was decorated in 1555 with wall paintings: One of them representing an Allegory of the Old and New Testaments and of Sin and Salvation. The iconography of the painting was inspired by the Lutheran iconography of the Law and Gospel illustrating Martin Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone. However, the Ostrava painting varies greatly from the original Lucas Cranach iconography. The author of the iconographic conception of the Ostrava allegory can be hypothetically identified as the Ostravian Catholic priest Jan Jilovský who was known to have served the local aristocracy sub utraque specie. Iconography of the allegory inspired by the Law and Gospel might well have been also a result of the priest’s poor theological knowledge and of the chaos of orthodoxy. Jilovský would seem to have been one of those “confused and married” priests about whom the Olomouc bishop Marek Khuen complained in his letter of 1561. However, it is possible that the Ostrava allegory may be primarily expressing, under the veil of “tolerated” Utraquism, the Lutheran idea of justification by faith, in a way that would not be obvious in a bishopric church. Such an original, unusual and compromise iconographical presentation was tolerable for the Ostrava bourgeois as well as for the aristocracy – of Catholic as well as of Utraquist and/or Lutheran confession. The allegory is not polemic but rather represents rare evidence in the field of Fine Arts of not only the religious transformation, chaos and orthodox vagueness but also coexistence and tolerance “by necessity” in the 16th Bohemian Lands especially in Moravia.
(Trans)missions: Monasteries as Sites of Cultural Transfers, 2022
Liber depictus (cod. 370, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is the mid-14th century pen-draw il... more Liber depictus (cod. 370, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is the mid-14th century pen-draw illustrated manuscript of Bohemian origin commissioned by the Rosenberg family for the Friar Minor and Poor Clares double monastery in Český Krumlov. The verso of folio 155 bares a unique so-called Frau Welt image in form of female monster with grotesque, deformed body symbolizing the spiritual and moral deformity; personifying the Seven Deadly Sins. The monster is depicted as a woman with animal features, following the iconographic tradition of associating the individual sins with animal body parts. Uniquely the image also reflects peccatum linguae, the sin of tongue described as the eighth sin by William Peraldus in his Summa de vitiis. The polysemantic image is analysed from multiple aspects: Visual-as the animal-like monster inspired by wider iconographic medieval tradition; Religious-as the antipode of cloistered; Moral-as the personification of eight sins; Hermetic-in the context of period alchemy ideas and tracts; Gender-as the example of visual distortion and manipulation with feminity and female body leading to monstrous forms.
Modestia est signum Sapientiae Studie nejen o středověkém umění k poctě Dalibora Prixe, 2021
The journey and travel itself represented a popular allegory in ancient as well as Chris-tian cul... more The journey and travel itself represented a popular allegory in ancient as well as Chris-tian culture and mysticism of a human struggle for attaining eternal life or heavenly delights. Physical travel during the Middle Ages represented a long, dangerous and arduous activity. Apart from the physical dangers connected with travel as such, there was the immense threat of sudden death lurking nearby with its potential to cause not only the physical end of the traveler’s body but worse, that of his soul, leading it to eternal damnation. In order to protect the medieval traveler on his journey, fine art played an important role as some of its iconography was believed to have protective power and played an important role in the medieval Art of dying well (ars moriendi). Well-known examples of artwork protecting travelers from the physical dangers in-cluded images of St. Christopher, the Holy Face (Vera icon), the Virgin Mary etc. However, there also were images that were supposed to turn the traveler’s mind to-wards spiritual and moral matters. The article attempts to present a closer view of the specific iconography accompanying travelling people of the Late Middle Ages as well as to address the phenomena of the non-corporeal pilgrimage and the concept of the wandering and erring soul.
Umění / Art, 2021
The manuscript known in the Czech environment as the
Mater verborum and held in the Library of t... more The manuscript known in the Czech environment as the
Mater verborum and held in the Library of the National
Museum in Prague consists of a set of three encyclopaedic
dictionaries of which the most extensive is the Glossarium
Salamonis (Mater verborum) compiled at the beginning of
the tenth century. The Prague edition of the manuscript
originated around 1240, and was quite certainly made in
a Benedictine environment. Especially interesting are the
historiated initials, unusual for this type of manuscript,
and always present at the beginning of the appropriate
letter of the dictionary. The unique iconography of the
initial ‘T’abanus (fol. 169v) with Christ crucified on a cross
decorated with the cut branches in the form of a ‘Y’ (forked
cross, or Gabelkreutz) stands out among them. This is the
first-ever example of this iconography in central Europe.
The initial demonstrates its connection with the text of
the glossary which almost literally cites excerpts from The
Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, while the scribe moreover
added the motto (Tabernaculum corpus domini, tentorium
vel papilionum) to Isidore’s text, inspiring the presence of
the Crucified in the accompanying initial, but nevertheless
not explaining the portrayal of the cross in the form of the
Gabelkreutz. The reason for the choice of the less usual shape
of the cross and the symbolic meaning of the Crucifixion is
apparent from the iconographical concept of the decoration
of the manuscript’s initials which visually and semantically
‘communicate’ with each other, in some cases even being
semantically and visually ‘paired’ on the principle of biblical
narration, analogy, parabolas and antithesis. This is evident
in the initial ‘T’abanus with the Crucifixion, and its semantic
and visual relationship to the initial ‘Y’e t z (fol. 191r) with
the grape harvester collecting grapes symbolising human
soul and its salvation and the ape representing sensuality,
sin and damnation. The initial introduces the text precisely,
quoting a passage from the first book of Isidore’s Etymologies
(De gramatica), which describes the symbolic meaning of the
letter Y as a symbol of the crossroads of human life (bivium),
with the right arm of the letter symbolising salvation and
eternal life, and the left, damnation and death.
Royal Nunneries at the Center of Medieval Europe, 2022
Religious Practices and Everyday Life in the Long Fifteenth Century (1350–1570), 2021
The Legend of the Three Dead and the Three Living undoubtedly reflect the late medieval cultural ... more The Legend of the Three Dead and the Three Living undoubtedly reflect the late medieval cultural and social experience of death. That must almost certainly be a reason for its widespread dissemination throughout the Europe of the High and Late Middle Ages. The proposed study introduces all survived Bohemian examples of the Legend and interprets them within the broader European context, emphasizing the period's religious and pastoral practice and focusing on certain aspects of the Legend iconography. The allusion to corporal death as the 'death of the world' can be seen in the oldest macabre image in Bohemian medieval art in the Church of St Maurice in Mouřenec, visually linking the Legend with the Last Judgment and the Requiem Mass. The image of the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead in the Dominican church in České Budějovice corresponds well with a popular period prayer Obsecro te, often used as a general plea for salvation and a 'good death' at the end enclosed by a plea for a revelation of the death hour. The last representation of the Legend can be found in the memorial church of St Bartholomew in Kočí, where the motif documents the fact that such a macabre theme was also used by Hussites.
Convivium V/2, 2018
The article introduces two Bohemian parish churches and their mural paintings depicting didactic-... more The article introduces two Bohemian parish churches and their mural paintings depicting didactic-dogmatic images that are unique in the Czech context. The article analyses the possible function of the images, their meaning and use within the pastoral practice (cura animarum) in the context of religious reform, and the devotional – moral transformation initiated by the Lateran Council IV. The first example is the image of scutum fidei painted shortly after the mid-fourteenth century in the former chapel of the Hradec Králové parish church, painted next to the prominent Bohemian saint and Přemyslid dux St Wenceslaus. The scutum fidei in Hradec Králové represents the oldest known example of such Trinitarian diagram in central Europe and it is placed here in the original visual context. The scutum in the Hradec Králové chapel needs to be understood as a multi-layer image with strong pastoral-educational potential. It is “Bohemianised”, as being the protective attribute of the Czech holy patron, St Wenceslaus, and part of his arma virtutum. The second case represents the All Saints parish church in Zdětín. Its presbytery is decorated with two unique monumental paintings depicting the Seven Sacraments and the Seven Works of Mercy together with a scene with preaching Christ and Mary Magdalene accompanied by the Czech-Latin text of the Decalogue. The iconographic conception of the Zdětín paintings is unique within Bohemian medieval art, inspired by the period’s catechetic handbooks.
Reality, Illusion or Vision? Depicting the St. Gregory Mass in Art of the Late Middle Ages.
The ... more Reality, Illusion or Vision? Depicting the St. Gregory Mass in Art of the Late Middle Ages.
The article deals with one of the most popular images of the Late Middle Ages, the St. Gregory Mass, and tries to answer the question of its function in Late Medieval devotion especially in connection with Eucharistic dogma, focusing on the theory of Christ’s real presence and transubstantiation. The image of the St. Gregory Mass was not, however, a visual representation of the Eucharist dogma but of the philosophical and theological complexity of Christ’s presence as well as his visual and physical absence in this world. Through the visual multiplication of Christ’s body in the picture, the viewer is invited to contemplate the image with his bodily as well as intellectual eye and served a function as a practical object of devotion, decreasing the number of years in Purgatory, as well as an instrument for mystical exercise for practising imaginatio and contemplation, leading to the final visio Dei and union with God.
In Czech art history, the Krumlov miscellanea have traditionally been linked with the Utraquist m... more In Czech art history, the Krumlov miscellanea have traditionally been linked with the Utraquist milieu at the start of the Hussite uprisings. The codex includes a number of texts directed at monks: in addition to the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, these include tracts by Albert the Great and Heinrich Suso, and mystical treatments of the perfection of the monastic life by St Bonaventure. The tract that can be attributed to Jan Hus, On the seven mortal sins (in the miscellanea it is presented as an anonymous work), and Tomáš of Šítný's Booklets on the death of a wanton youth were, by contrast, intended for a lay readership. They were included in the collection as thematic complements to the moralising mystical texts by Bonaventure and Albert the Great about the perfect spiritual life. The manuscript was probably commissioned in 1417 in Prague by the young Oldřich of Rožmberk himself for the Franciscans of Krumlov. The manuscript may have served them as a 'handbook' for pastoral care in the lay community as well as with the neighbouring Poor Clare nuns. The two well-known 'Hussite' illuminations in the miscellanea, King David with a chalice in his shield (pag. 40) and the Adoration of the chalice and monstrance (pag. 190), reflect the contemporaneous situation in Bohemia and on the Rožmberk estate in 1417. In that year, the Prague university declared its support for the chalice and Oldřich of Rožmberk instituted communion in both kinds on his estate. In particular, the depiction of the group of believers worshipping the chalice and Host on the altar mensa (pag. 190) corresponds to this state of affairs. The fact that the scene does not apostrophise active lay communion sub utraque, but rather the passive ostensio and adoratio, suggests a vague conception of the liturgical practice associated with the lay chalice. The blue field in the shield of King David provides a key for dating the manuscript. It differs from the colours used by the Hussites and suggests rather the ecclesiological and eschatological significance of the chalice in general.
"The King hath brought me into his Chambers..." Female monastic spirituality and Art in Late Medi... more "The King hath brought me into his Chambers..." Female monastic spirituality and Art in Late Medieval Bohemia.
In the context of Bohemian Art of the Late Middle Ages a number of important as well as less prominent visual objects have survived until today, displaying a number of interesting iconographic modifications and forms relating to specifics of female monastic devotion and mysticism. Rarely can we identify visual objects which we know to have been commissioned by a woman or which were created with a female audience in mind. From the fragmentary surviving art production of the 14th and 15th centuries dedicated to female monasteries in the Bohemian Lands, liturgical books comprise the greater part of what remains. The study introduces selected illuminated manuscripts related to or directly commissioned by Bohemian and Moravian female monasteries and attempts to present and interpret selected illuminations related mainly to the Benedictine nunnery of St. George at Prague. In the context of Bohemian Art of the Late Middle Ages a number of important as well as less prominent visual objects have survived until today, displaying a number of interesting iconographic modifications and forms relating to specifics of female monastic devotion and mysticism. Rarely can we identify visual objects which we know to have been commissioned by a woman or which were created with a female audience in mind. From the fragmentary surviving art production of the 14th and 15th centuries dedicated to female monasteries in the Bohemian Lands, liturgical books comprise the greater part of what remains. The paper will introduce selected illuminated manuscripts related to or directly commissioned by Bohemian and Moravian female monasteries and will attempt to present and interpret selected illuminations. Besides the famous Passional of Abbess Kunigunde and three breviaries there are two Books of Hours used by the noble women from the Prague court environment.
The Man of Sorrows and the Visual Manifestation of praesentia realis in Late Medieval Art. The ar... more The Man of Sorrows and the Visual Manifestation of praesentia realis in Late Medieval Art. The article deals with the image of the Man of Sorrows in Central European Art of the 14th and 15th centuries as a specific iconographic type closely related to the Feast of Corpus Christi. The Man of Sorrows served as a suitable motif for expressing the central dogma of the Corpus Christi feast – the praesentia realis Christi in the Eucharist. Besides visualisation of the complex theological ideas on the two substances of Christ´s body and his presence, the motif allowed greater emotional involvement of the believer in devotion of the new feast. The artists of the Late Middle Ages dedicated to this visual theme great attention not only from an iconographical point of view but also in the purely formal manner of its representation. They often used an illusionistic, naturalistic or even corporeal artistic style that was designed, on the basis of empirical experience, to visualise to corporeal eyes the mystery of the Eucharist, unreachable otherwise by either the intellect or the senses.
Oculos tuos ad nos converte: Paraliturgy and Visual Communication as a Means of Salvation?
Numbe... more Oculos tuos ad nos converte: Paraliturgy and Visual Communication as a Means of Salvation?
Number of late-medieval artworks are often formally designed not only for adoration but also for direct communication with believer trhough their prayer, gestures and gaze. Those images themsleves invite reciprocity by returning the recipient's gaze. In a mystical sense, this mirror principle of "gaze exchange" prefigures the redeeming look and appears in communication both within the image and between the external recipient and the image. Late-medieval artworks in particular carry a distinct soteriological symbolism expressed among others by their reciprocal gaze of the image. This gaze tends to be closely connected with Eucharistic symbolism and appears not only in art objects desihned for mystical contemplation in a monastic environment but also in those in the public space.
The Eucharist Mill in the Czech Gradual from Lucerne – An attempt at an iconological interpretati... more The Eucharist Mill in the Czech Gradual from Lucerne – An attempt at an iconological interpretation
The article is dedicated to a title illumination in a Czech Gradual, today on deposit at the Central Library in Lucerne, depicting the image of a Eucharist Mill. The author tries to demonstrate how this iconography, rare in Bohemia may well reflect the specific religious and intellectual situation in Bohemia at the beginning of the 15th century. Besides the iconographic tradition and the complex theological thoughts on the Eucharist, the iconography of the Lucerne Eucharist Mill was influenced by the alchemistic idea of the Opus Magnum common at the court of Wenceslas IV. In this context we can assume Konrad of Vechta, the later Prague archbishop and alchemist, to have been the potential initiator of this manuscript and its iconography. We know that the workshop where the author of the Lucerne illumination – the Master of the Antwerp Bible worked, was not employed only by this important personality of the king´s court, but also by the Cistercian monastery at Sedlec near Kutná Hora, with which Konrad was in close contact. The question of whether this manuscript could have been originally dedicated to the Sedlec Cistercians remains open. However, the hermetic, intellectually demanding and theologically conservative iconography of the Eucharist Mill in the Lucerne Gradual and frequent use of this image in later Cistercian art do not contradict this hypothesis.
'You are concealed in face of bread…' The Image of the Vera Icon in the Context of Eucharistic De... more 'You are concealed in face of bread…' The Image of the Vera Icon in the Context of Eucharistic Devotion in Late Medieval Bohemia
Holy Family from Stonava and the Motif of Christ’s Female Genealogy in Late Medieval Art
The stu... more Holy Family from Stonava and the Motif of Christ’s Female Genealogy in Late Medieval Art
The study deals with the matrilineal genealogy of Christ in the context of the cult of St. Anne in the Later Middle Ages and Early Reformation. In its first part it describes an iconography of the Holy Kinship in medieval art based on the example of two wooden reliefs from Stonava portraying Christ’s extended family. The second part of the text explores the concept of Christ’s matriliny in period thought and art together with gender aspects of the motif. The major part of the text is dedicated to a reflection of St. Anne as the mother of the Virgin Mary, matriarch of Christ’s family and female model par excellence in moral discourse of the period. As a product of a manipulative, theological construct she served as a paradigm of the perfect wife, mother, educator and the source of holy progeny for all levels of society of the time.
Mural Paintings in the Český Krumlov Cloister of Franciscan Tertiaries – Beguines
The presence o... more Mural Paintings in the Český Krumlov Cloister of Franciscan Tertiaries – Beguines
The presence of a lay semi-enclosed community of religious women in Český Krumlov has been nearly ignored by Czech research so far, mainly due to a significant lack of written sources. Therefore, we know very little from the preserved records – in fact, only that the female lay community in Český Krumlov was founded in 1375 by Anne, a member of the powerful Rosenberg house and sister of the double monastery
founders. After her death (in 1388) she dedicated her house (a court) to the group of lay women from all social strata. Her court was then (after 1400?) rebuilt to suit their semi-enclosed cohabitation in the immediate proximity of the double monastery of Poor Clare sisters and Friars Minor, who were responsible for the education and pastoral care of both Poor Clares and the tertiary sisters.The oldest mural painting in the tertiary convent (from c. 1380) has survived from the original house of Anne of Rosenberg and depicts a popular theme of so called weibermacht – a morality warning against the power of women. The painting was probably repainted during the second third of the 15th century with figures of the Franciscan tertiary nuns. The new concept of cloister mural decoration was probably related to its architectonic adaptation. In addition to anonymous female members of the local Franciscan female tertiary community, its new painted decoration also depicts prominent male members of the church and Franciscan order (some of them are identified as St. Bonaventura, pope Nicolas IV, St. Luis of Toulouse,
St. Antoine of Padua and St. Francis) plus theologians and teachers of the Franciscan order. The mural paintings in the “third cloister” in the Český Krumlov double monastery represent a unique document of the visual culture of the local tertiary community, its collective, “deindividualized” memory and “disciplined” identity; simultaneously proclaiming the official incorporation of the local female tertiaries into the Franciscan order.
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Papers by Daniela Rywiková
Mater verborum and held in the Library of the National
Museum in Prague consists of a set of three encyclopaedic
dictionaries of which the most extensive is the Glossarium
Salamonis (Mater verborum) compiled at the beginning of
the tenth century. The Prague edition of the manuscript
originated around 1240, and was quite certainly made in
a Benedictine environment. Especially interesting are the
historiated initials, unusual for this type of manuscript,
and always present at the beginning of the appropriate
letter of the dictionary. The unique iconography of the
initial ‘T’abanus (fol. 169v) with Christ crucified on a cross
decorated with the cut branches in the form of a ‘Y’ (forked
cross, or Gabelkreutz) stands out among them. This is the
first-ever example of this iconography in central Europe.
The initial demonstrates its connection with the text of
the glossary which almost literally cites excerpts from The
Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, while the scribe moreover
added the motto (Tabernaculum corpus domini, tentorium
vel papilionum) to Isidore’s text, inspiring the presence of
the Crucified in the accompanying initial, but nevertheless
not explaining the portrayal of the cross in the form of the
Gabelkreutz. The reason for the choice of the less usual shape
of the cross and the symbolic meaning of the Crucifixion is
apparent from the iconographical concept of the decoration
of the manuscript’s initials which visually and semantically
‘communicate’ with each other, in some cases even being
semantically and visually ‘paired’ on the principle of biblical
narration, analogy, parabolas and antithesis. This is evident
in the initial ‘T’abanus with the Crucifixion, and its semantic
and visual relationship to the initial ‘Y’e t z (fol. 191r) with
the grape harvester collecting grapes symbolising human
soul and its salvation and the ape representing sensuality,
sin and damnation. The initial introduces the text precisely,
quoting a passage from the first book of Isidore’s Etymologies
(De gramatica), which describes the symbolic meaning of the
letter Y as a symbol of the crossroads of human life (bivium),
with the right arm of the letter symbolising salvation and
eternal life, and the left, damnation and death.
The article deals with one of the most popular images of the Late Middle Ages, the St. Gregory Mass, and tries to answer the question of its function in Late Medieval devotion especially in connection with Eucharistic dogma, focusing on the theory of Christ’s real presence and transubstantiation. The image of the St. Gregory Mass was not, however, a visual representation of the Eucharist dogma but of the philosophical and theological complexity of Christ’s presence as well as his visual and physical absence in this world. Through the visual multiplication of Christ’s body in the picture, the viewer is invited to contemplate the image with his bodily as well as intellectual eye and served a function as a practical object of devotion, decreasing the number of years in Purgatory, as well as an instrument for mystical exercise for practising imaginatio and contemplation, leading to the final visio Dei and union with God.
In the context of Bohemian Art of the Late Middle Ages a number of important as well as less prominent visual objects have survived until today, displaying a number of interesting iconographic modifications and forms relating to specifics of female monastic devotion and mysticism. Rarely can we identify visual objects which we know to have been commissioned by a woman or which were created with a female audience in mind. From the fragmentary surviving art production of the 14th and 15th centuries dedicated to female monasteries in the Bohemian Lands, liturgical books comprise the greater part of what remains. The study introduces selected illuminated manuscripts related to or directly commissioned by Bohemian and Moravian female monasteries and attempts to present and interpret selected illuminations related mainly to the Benedictine nunnery of St. George at Prague. In the context of Bohemian Art of the Late Middle Ages a number of important as well as less prominent visual objects have survived until today, displaying a number of interesting iconographic modifications and forms relating to specifics of female monastic devotion and mysticism. Rarely can we identify visual objects which we know to have been commissioned by a woman or which were created with a female audience in mind. From the fragmentary surviving art production of the 14th and 15th centuries dedicated to female monasteries in the Bohemian Lands, liturgical books comprise the greater part of what remains. The paper will introduce selected illuminated manuscripts related to or directly commissioned by Bohemian and Moravian female monasteries and will attempt to present and interpret selected illuminations. Besides the famous Passional of Abbess Kunigunde and three breviaries there are two Books of Hours used by the noble women from the Prague court environment.
Number of late-medieval artworks are often formally designed not only for adoration but also for direct communication with believer trhough their prayer, gestures and gaze. Those images themsleves invite reciprocity by returning the recipient's gaze. In a mystical sense, this mirror principle of "gaze exchange" prefigures the redeeming look and appears in communication both within the image and between the external recipient and the image. Late-medieval artworks in particular carry a distinct soteriological symbolism expressed among others by their reciprocal gaze of the image. This gaze tends to be closely connected with Eucharistic symbolism and appears not only in art objects desihned for mystical contemplation in a monastic environment but also in those in the public space.
The article is dedicated to a title illumination in a Czech Gradual, today on deposit at the Central Library in Lucerne, depicting the image of a Eucharist Mill. The author tries to demonstrate how this iconography, rare in Bohemia may well reflect the specific religious and intellectual situation in Bohemia at the beginning of the 15th century. Besides the iconographic tradition and the complex theological thoughts on the Eucharist, the iconography of the Lucerne Eucharist Mill was influenced by the alchemistic idea of the Opus Magnum common at the court of Wenceslas IV. In this context we can assume Konrad of Vechta, the later Prague archbishop and alchemist, to have been the potential initiator of this manuscript and its iconography. We know that the workshop where the author of the Lucerne illumination – the Master of the Antwerp Bible worked, was not employed only by this important personality of the king´s court, but also by the Cistercian monastery at Sedlec near Kutná Hora, with which Konrad was in close contact. The question of whether this manuscript could have been originally dedicated to the Sedlec Cistercians remains open. However, the hermetic, intellectually demanding and theologically conservative iconography of the Eucharist Mill in the Lucerne Gradual and frequent use of this image in later Cistercian art do not contradict this hypothesis.
The study deals with the matrilineal genealogy of Christ in the context of the cult of St. Anne in the Later Middle Ages and Early Reformation. In its first part it describes an iconography of the Holy Kinship in medieval art based on the example of two wooden reliefs from Stonava portraying Christ’s extended family. The second part of the text explores the concept of Christ’s matriliny in period thought and art together with gender aspects of the motif. The major part of the text is dedicated to a reflection of St. Anne as the mother of the Virgin Mary, matriarch of Christ’s family and female model par excellence in moral discourse of the period. As a product of a manipulative, theological construct she served as a paradigm of the perfect wife, mother, educator and the source of holy progeny for all levels of society of the time.
The presence of a lay semi-enclosed community of religious women in Český Krumlov has been nearly ignored by Czech research so far, mainly due to a significant lack of written sources. Therefore, we know very little from the preserved records – in fact, only that the female lay community in Český Krumlov was founded in 1375 by Anne, a member of the powerful Rosenberg house and sister of the double monastery
founders. After her death (in 1388) she dedicated her house (a court) to the group of lay women from all social strata. Her court was then (after 1400?) rebuilt to suit their semi-enclosed cohabitation in the immediate proximity of the double monastery of Poor Clare sisters and Friars Minor, who were responsible for the education and pastoral care of both Poor Clares and the tertiary sisters.The oldest mural painting in the tertiary convent (from c. 1380) has survived from the original house of Anne of Rosenberg and depicts a popular theme of so called weibermacht – a morality warning against the power of women. The painting was probably repainted during the second third of the 15th century with figures of the Franciscan tertiary nuns. The new concept of cloister mural decoration was probably related to its architectonic adaptation. In addition to anonymous female members of the local Franciscan female tertiary community, its new painted decoration also depicts prominent male members of the church and Franciscan order (some of them are identified as St. Bonaventura, pope Nicolas IV, St. Luis of Toulouse,
St. Antoine of Padua and St. Francis) plus theologians and teachers of the Franciscan order. The mural paintings in the “third cloister” in the Český Krumlov double monastery represent a unique document of the visual culture of the local tertiary community, its collective, “deindividualized” memory and “disciplined” identity; simultaneously proclaiming the official incorporation of the local female tertiaries into the Franciscan order.
Mater verborum and held in the Library of the National
Museum in Prague consists of a set of three encyclopaedic
dictionaries of which the most extensive is the Glossarium
Salamonis (Mater verborum) compiled at the beginning of
the tenth century. The Prague edition of the manuscript
originated around 1240, and was quite certainly made in
a Benedictine environment. Especially interesting are the
historiated initials, unusual for this type of manuscript,
and always present at the beginning of the appropriate
letter of the dictionary. The unique iconography of the
initial ‘T’abanus (fol. 169v) with Christ crucified on a cross
decorated with the cut branches in the form of a ‘Y’ (forked
cross, or Gabelkreutz) stands out among them. This is the
first-ever example of this iconography in central Europe.
The initial demonstrates its connection with the text of
the glossary which almost literally cites excerpts from The
Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, while the scribe moreover
added the motto (Tabernaculum corpus domini, tentorium
vel papilionum) to Isidore’s text, inspiring the presence of
the Crucified in the accompanying initial, but nevertheless
not explaining the portrayal of the cross in the form of the
Gabelkreutz. The reason for the choice of the less usual shape
of the cross and the symbolic meaning of the Crucifixion is
apparent from the iconographical concept of the decoration
of the manuscript’s initials which visually and semantically
‘communicate’ with each other, in some cases even being
semantically and visually ‘paired’ on the principle of biblical
narration, analogy, parabolas and antithesis. This is evident
in the initial ‘T’abanus with the Crucifixion, and its semantic
and visual relationship to the initial ‘Y’e t z (fol. 191r) with
the grape harvester collecting grapes symbolising human
soul and its salvation and the ape representing sensuality,
sin and damnation. The initial introduces the text precisely,
quoting a passage from the first book of Isidore’s Etymologies
(De gramatica), which describes the symbolic meaning of the
letter Y as a symbol of the crossroads of human life (bivium),
with the right arm of the letter symbolising salvation and
eternal life, and the left, damnation and death.
The article deals with one of the most popular images of the Late Middle Ages, the St. Gregory Mass, and tries to answer the question of its function in Late Medieval devotion especially in connection with Eucharistic dogma, focusing on the theory of Christ’s real presence and transubstantiation. The image of the St. Gregory Mass was not, however, a visual representation of the Eucharist dogma but of the philosophical and theological complexity of Christ’s presence as well as his visual and physical absence in this world. Through the visual multiplication of Christ’s body in the picture, the viewer is invited to contemplate the image with his bodily as well as intellectual eye and served a function as a practical object of devotion, decreasing the number of years in Purgatory, as well as an instrument for mystical exercise for practising imaginatio and contemplation, leading to the final visio Dei and union with God.
In the context of Bohemian Art of the Late Middle Ages a number of important as well as less prominent visual objects have survived until today, displaying a number of interesting iconographic modifications and forms relating to specifics of female monastic devotion and mysticism. Rarely can we identify visual objects which we know to have been commissioned by a woman or which were created with a female audience in mind. From the fragmentary surviving art production of the 14th and 15th centuries dedicated to female monasteries in the Bohemian Lands, liturgical books comprise the greater part of what remains. The study introduces selected illuminated manuscripts related to or directly commissioned by Bohemian and Moravian female monasteries and attempts to present and interpret selected illuminations related mainly to the Benedictine nunnery of St. George at Prague. In the context of Bohemian Art of the Late Middle Ages a number of important as well as less prominent visual objects have survived until today, displaying a number of interesting iconographic modifications and forms relating to specifics of female monastic devotion and mysticism. Rarely can we identify visual objects which we know to have been commissioned by a woman or which were created with a female audience in mind. From the fragmentary surviving art production of the 14th and 15th centuries dedicated to female monasteries in the Bohemian Lands, liturgical books comprise the greater part of what remains. The paper will introduce selected illuminated manuscripts related to or directly commissioned by Bohemian and Moravian female monasteries and will attempt to present and interpret selected illuminations. Besides the famous Passional of Abbess Kunigunde and three breviaries there are two Books of Hours used by the noble women from the Prague court environment.
Number of late-medieval artworks are often formally designed not only for adoration but also for direct communication with believer trhough their prayer, gestures and gaze. Those images themsleves invite reciprocity by returning the recipient's gaze. In a mystical sense, this mirror principle of "gaze exchange" prefigures the redeeming look and appears in communication both within the image and between the external recipient and the image. Late-medieval artworks in particular carry a distinct soteriological symbolism expressed among others by their reciprocal gaze of the image. This gaze tends to be closely connected with Eucharistic symbolism and appears not only in art objects desihned for mystical contemplation in a monastic environment but also in those in the public space.
The article is dedicated to a title illumination in a Czech Gradual, today on deposit at the Central Library in Lucerne, depicting the image of a Eucharist Mill. The author tries to demonstrate how this iconography, rare in Bohemia may well reflect the specific religious and intellectual situation in Bohemia at the beginning of the 15th century. Besides the iconographic tradition and the complex theological thoughts on the Eucharist, the iconography of the Lucerne Eucharist Mill was influenced by the alchemistic idea of the Opus Magnum common at the court of Wenceslas IV. In this context we can assume Konrad of Vechta, the later Prague archbishop and alchemist, to have been the potential initiator of this manuscript and its iconography. We know that the workshop where the author of the Lucerne illumination – the Master of the Antwerp Bible worked, was not employed only by this important personality of the king´s court, but also by the Cistercian monastery at Sedlec near Kutná Hora, with which Konrad was in close contact. The question of whether this manuscript could have been originally dedicated to the Sedlec Cistercians remains open. However, the hermetic, intellectually demanding and theologically conservative iconography of the Eucharist Mill in the Lucerne Gradual and frequent use of this image in later Cistercian art do not contradict this hypothesis.
The study deals with the matrilineal genealogy of Christ in the context of the cult of St. Anne in the Later Middle Ages and Early Reformation. In its first part it describes an iconography of the Holy Kinship in medieval art based on the example of two wooden reliefs from Stonava portraying Christ’s extended family. The second part of the text explores the concept of Christ’s matriliny in period thought and art together with gender aspects of the motif. The major part of the text is dedicated to a reflection of St. Anne as the mother of the Virgin Mary, matriarch of Christ’s family and female model par excellence in moral discourse of the period. As a product of a manipulative, theological construct she served as a paradigm of the perfect wife, mother, educator and the source of holy progeny for all levels of society of the time.
The presence of a lay semi-enclosed community of religious women in Český Krumlov has been nearly ignored by Czech research so far, mainly due to a significant lack of written sources. Therefore, we know very little from the preserved records – in fact, only that the female lay community in Český Krumlov was founded in 1375 by Anne, a member of the powerful Rosenberg house and sister of the double monastery
founders. After her death (in 1388) she dedicated her house (a court) to the group of lay women from all social strata. Her court was then (after 1400?) rebuilt to suit their semi-enclosed cohabitation in the immediate proximity of the double monastery of Poor Clare sisters and Friars Minor, who were responsible for the education and pastoral care of both Poor Clares and the tertiary sisters.The oldest mural painting in the tertiary convent (from c. 1380) has survived from the original house of Anne of Rosenberg and depicts a popular theme of so called weibermacht – a morality warning against the power of women. The painting was probably repainted during the second third of the 15th century with figures of the Franciscan tertiary nuns. The new concept of cloister mural decoration was probably related to its architectonic adaptation. In addition to anonymous female members of the local Franciscan female tertiary community, its new painted decoration also depicts prominent male members of the church and Franciscan order (some of them are identified as St. Bonaventura, pope Nicolas IV, St. Luis of Toulouse,
St. Antoine of Padua and St. Francis) plus theologians and teachers of the Franciscan order. The mural paintings in the “third cloister” in the Český Krumlov double monastery represent a unique document of the visual culture of the local tertiary community, its collective, “deindividualized” memory and “disciplined” identity; simultaneously proclaiming the official incorporation of the local female tertiaries into the Franciscan order.
The wall paintings in the St. Wenceslas town church of Moravská Ostrava were discovered by restorers in 1963 and their contemporary appearance represents the result of relatively frequent acts of restoration.
The interior of the town church was decorated in 1555 with wall paintings of a quality which does not exceed the regional relevance of the monument. The state of the paintings does not allow proper stylistic analysis, and unfortunately only very general conclusions in the area of hypothesis. In spite of these circumstances we can however refute a theory ascribing authorship to some of the Italian artists working in the 1530’s for the aristocratic family of Sedlničtí from Choltice in Polish Ostrava. The stylistic character of the paintings in the presbytery, almost certainly created during the 1530’s, demonstrates a more plausible artistic relationship to German countries or Silesia, though this statement cannot be verified further.
The paintings in the presbytery and also in the church naves can, from the point of view of quality be considered average or below average. The painting of the best quality is the Adoration of the Magi with its monumental three-plan composition probably inspired by Dutch and German graphic art. The understanding of landscape in the Ostrava paintings (Adoration of the Magi; Meeting of the Three Magi and their Retinues; Allegory of the Old and New Testaments and of Sin and Salvation) is however very schematic and really still medieval, dividing the landscape into individual plans with a use of atmospheric perspective. This approach can be regarded as very conservative for the mid-16th century, as if without deeper interest in the study of natural detail and with resignation towards a more sophisticated expression of special relationships. Landscape is still regarded here in the medieval sense as a “stage set” where the action takes place, as can be seen, for example, in the allegory painting in the church’s north nave though our judgment can be partly distorted by the poor condition or the absence of the top layers of the paintings.
The interior of the church was decorated by a narrative Christological cycle (of unknown scope). Its part also contained a passion cycle. From the entire cycle only two monumental paintings survive till today – the Adoration of the Magi, the continuing scene of their retinues on the side wall and the fragment of painting depicting Christ before Pilate.
Paintings on other parts of the walls are sadly almost unreadable so it is impossible to distinguish precisely their iconographic meaning.
From the iconographical point of view the most interesting and also best preserved is a monumental painting on the facing wall of the north nave which represents the visual pendant of the Adoration of the Magi. It is an allegory of the Old and New Testaments and of Sin and Salvation. The iconography of the painting was inspired by the Lutheran iconography of the Law and the Gospel illustrating Martin Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ. However, the Ostrava painting varies greatly from the original Lucas Cranach iconography of this theme. The scenes of manna falling from heaven and Moses smiting the rock bringing forth a spring, the Virgin Mary with Child and Hell in the form of a Leviathan’s maw have been added here. Also, motifs adopted from the Law and the Gospel are not in logical order as the author of the iconographic conception of the painting would not have understood or have been familiar with the original theological idea of this theme. This fact is also expressed by the artistic uncertainty of the painter noticeable in the scene of the sinful man with John the Baptist, probably painted without any graphic model or other kind of exemplum. There is also the marked absence of a Crucifixion from the Ostrava allegory. We can only hypothetically assume its presence on the crown of the Tree of Life as compositional opposition to Moses with the Tables of Law who represents the dominant motive of the entire visual representation of the allegory. One can argue that the painting expresses the Utraquist understanding of the sacrament of the Eucharist especially through the use of the motifs of manna falling from Heaven and Moses bringing forth the spring as Old Testament pre-figurations of both elements of the sacrament, together with the scene of John the Baptist and the sinner on to whom the spring of Christ’s blood, the source of salvation is flowing. The blood which flowed from Christ’s side while he was on the cross is the same which Christians receive in the form of consecrated wine during the sacrament of the Eucharist. If this scene can also be interpreted as a representation of the doctrine of transubstantiation with regard to iconographic analogies with the Law and the Gospel and Luther’s opinions on the Eucharist we presume as questionable also the entire idea of the painting itself which, it could be argued, does not represent Lutheran Law and Gospel though it was nevertheless inspired by it. On the contrary, the figure of Moses (representing lex Mose) together with Old Testament scenes understood in the sense of biblical parallel typology seem to be more suited to the traditional spirit of Czech Utraquism albeit expressed in such a way that believers of all creeds entering a town church where both liturgies, Catholic as well as sub utraque were served, could feel free to express their devotion.
The author of the iconographic conception of the Ostrava allegory can be identified as the Ostravian Catholic priest Jan Jilovský who was known to have served the local aristocracy sub utraque specie. For the conception of the painting he derived his inspiration from the Lutheran theme Law and Gospel which, however, he enriched with other motifs in a very original way. Jilovský could have come into contact with such a Lutheran representation in Bohemia (we know of only one such representation of this theme in Moravia which was from a later period) or, more likely, in neighboring Silesia where this theme was used on Protestant bourgeois epitaphs. Furthermore, we know that the town of Moravská Ostrava maintained frequent business contact with the Polish Těšínsko region which in the mid-16th century was already completely Lutheran.
Such a derivated iconography of the allegory inspired by the Law and the Gospel might well have been a result of the priest Jilovský’s poor theological knowledge and also of the chaos of orthodoxy which manifested itself in this case in a chaotic assimilation of new theological ideas or their misunderstanding. Jilovský would certainly seem to have been one of those “confused and married” priests about whom the Olomouc bishop Marek Khuen complained in his letter of 1561 “during the holy masses do not keep any ceremonies, and sacraments do not keep at churches as anyone preaches as he or the land lord likes and all these are hiding themselves under the sub utraque way…” Therefore it is also possible that the Ostravian allegory may be primarily expressing, under the veil of sub utraque, the Lutheran idea of justification only by faith, though in a way that would not be too obvious in a bishopric church and accompanied by traditional Catholic iconography (like the Man of Sorrows and Our Lady of Sorrows) and such an iconographical presentation was suitable for the ostravian bourgeois as well as for the aristocracy - of Catholic as well as of Utraquist and Lutheran creeds. If the paintings were really painted over at a later stage as is evident from the restoration investigations, this was certainly not done because of any potential heretical content in the painting but rather for technical or aesthetic reasons (for example, the humidity of the church walls due to which they were regarded as unsuitable for artistic decoration), otherwise similar themes would not have been met in a purely Catholic environment where additionally we would assume a certain level of quality theological fundament - in the Dominican monastery of České Budějovice, for example.
The iconographical conception of the decoration in the interior of St. Wenceslas’ church is traditional. Yet it cannot be regarded as purely Catholic in view of the presence of Utraquist symbolism and inspiration by Lutheran iconography in the allegory of the north church nave that must be regarded as unique in context of Czech, Moravian (and also Silesian) art of the 16th century. The allegory is not polemic even through its Utraquist Eucharistic symbolism and therefore it represents rare evidence in the field of Fine Arts of not only the religious chaos and orthodox vagueness but also religious coexistence and tolerance “by necessity” in the Moravia of the 16th century that had already been appreciated by contemporaries.
of Mercy in the Literary and Visual Sources
of the Bohemian Middle Ages
Ostrava, 14 – 16 November 2019
Call for Papers
The deadline for submission is 20 July 2019 Visualizing the Other in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Art (1300–1550)
The University of Ostrava and the Vivarium – Centre for Research of the Medieval Society and Culture invites art historians, historians, philosophers and cultural anthropologists to participate in the international conference Visualizing the Other in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Art (1300–1550). As Medieval Europe was ethnically and religiously diverse, we seek papers exploring the artistic, architectural, and linguistic evidence for the social, cultural, and political integration of ethnically and religiously diverse communities.