DU1712 Medieval Art: From Konstantin to Giotto II.

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Zuzana Frantová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Zuzana Frantová, Ph.D.
Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Zuzana Frantová, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The course will be focused to selected basic questions of Central European art of the late Middle Ages from the beginning of the 14th to the beginning of the 16th century. The primary stress will be laid on chronological view, but cross-section themes will be involved as well. Individual topics will be presented in terms of various relevant methodological approaches, with emphasis on their legitimate plurality. So the phenomenons as creator, donor, audience and spectator, style, technology, function, cult, liturgy, politics, memory, institutions etc. will be discussed.
Learning outcomes
The participant will gain a basic overview of the socio-cultural processes that shaped the visual art at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Modern Era as well as the basic orientation in the dominant art historical approaches of the second half of the 20th century. Finally he / she will gain thee the idea of relevant current research directions.
Syllabus
  • 1) History, periodization, style, function, typology, iconography: introduction and basic concepts and their reflection 2) East, West, South: Central Europe among visual traditions 3) Donator - concepteur - author - recipient: who "made" art and what do we know about him (them)? 4) John of Luxembourg, Louis IV the Bavarian, Charles IV., Wenceslas IV., Sigismund of Luxembourg: art as an instrument of government? 5) Peter Parler - architect, sculptor, carver, inventor, designer and entrepreneur: artist among workshops and guilds 6) Court Art - Interantional Style - Beautiful Style: 1400 and culture of the „autumn“ of Middle Ages 7) Historical technology: art as a craft - craft as an art 8) Contexts: liturgy, representation, memory, communication, devotion 9) Hussite, Utraquists, Catholics: art and confession in the 15th century 10) Altarpiece: eucharist and image 11) Italy, The Netherlands, Central Europe - Renaissance, realism, Late Gothic: concepts of style today? 12) Luther and art: reformation of image / reformation by image
Literature
  • Bruno Boerner – Bruno Klein (eds.), Stilfragen zur Kunst des Mittelalters, 2006
  • Jan Białostocki: Spätmittelalter und beginnende Neuzeit, 1967
  • Otto von Simson: Das Mittelalter II: Das Hohe Mittelalter, 1972
  • Johann Konrad Eberlein – Christine Jakobi-Mirwald (eds.): Grundlagen der mittelalterlichen Kunst, 1996
  • Katharina Krause (ed.): Geschichte der bildenden Kunst in Deutschland IV, Spätgotik und Renaissance, 2007
  • Bruno Klein (ed.): Geschichte der bildenden Kunst in Deutschland III, Gotik, 2007
  • BELTING, Hans. Bild und Kult : eine Geschichte des Bildes vor dem Zeitalter der Kunst. 6. Aufl. München: C.H.Beck, 2006, 700 s. ISBN 3406377688. info
Teaching methods
Teaching will take the form of lectures and follow-up discussions. I will not present an authoritative reading to individual topics, but legitimate interpretations and points of view will be presented. The basic approach is based on the work with rich visual material. One lecture (9) will take place at the Moravian Gallery in Brno.
Assessment methods
Completion of the course will be conditioned by a colloquium / credit / exam in the form of an oral interview on a subject chosen by the student him / herself. To gain the credit, he / she will have to demonstrate an orientation in facts, secondary scholarly literature and existing methodological approaches. The participant will be able to formulate and argue his / her own opinion and answer additional questions.
Language of instruction
Czech
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/DU1712