:l J ll ij l l History: lssues of Period and lnterpretation Milena BartlOVá ncno:vy oF .lNE ARTs, pRAGuf \ Renaissance and Reformation in Gzech art iit THE EXHIB]TIoN PROIECT 'The Art of the Bohemian Reformation', which was presented at Prague castle in the Winter of 2009 2010 under the direction oíkale ina Horni ková and Michal Šronék,used for the first time a new fuamework for Bohemian Lat Gothic and Renaissance art, which defined it in terms of confession: Reformation art.' When reading the exhibition Catalo8ue and the papers presented at the aCCompanying academic colloquium it appears that one of the results of the pro]'ect might be a reflection on thiS new framewolk. The exhibition Was a pleasant surprise in that the impression it gave was a unified one, something that a knowledge of previous ways of dealing with alt histolical matelial would by no means have led us to expect. The question needs to be asked Whether two previously disparate entities , Late Gothic and Renaissance - were linked here simply by ' xternal' circumstances, in other Wolds the construction of a framework based on lelígious history, as is frequently the CaSe when the conception for exhibitions oT publication plojects is based on different perspectives than simply art historical ones in the nalrow sense. or whether it is not the cas that heTe we can start to distitr8uish a new cate8ory Which is genuinety and inher ntly an art historical catesory and which could have a special intrinsic SignifiCance for our field in the future? The fact that the connection between Bohemian art and the Reformation has only now appeared as a theme of interest is the consequence of a numbel of inter ťe]ated complexeS of attitudes and StereotypeS that have not always been consciously reflected on. The conviction that Bohemian figura] alt in the 1óth century (outside the court of the Emperor Rudolf II) was of inferior artistic quality is a strong one. It is indeed clear at first glance that there is simply no point in comparing, say, Matouš Radouš With Caravaggio, in spite of the fact that they Were Contemporaries and painted some subiects that Were comparable, But does this mean that Radouš's epitaphs are only of informative cultural and historical si8nificance, and that we cannot evaluate tiem as art at all? An additional cause of the neglect of Bohemian Reformation art is a lack of interest on the part of the CZeCh historical memoly Which, as a kind of sociai consensus, is instructiv ly epitomised by the school curricula - in the Bohemian Reformation (with the exception of the Hussite movement) and especially in the yisual art it gave fise to. In the lemarks that follow l shall flrst of all attempt to outline the theme of the relationship between Late Gothic and Renaissance in CZech art history writin8, and then to examine th extent to Which Czech art history has dealt With the Bohemian Reformation up till now, and also to Consider th state of the national identity of this segment of the CZeCh cultural heritage. I sha]l go on to propose seven theses, on the basis of which we could start to incorporate the art of the Bohemian Reformation into the overall Story of our art history. I envisage that this model Woutd make it possible to take a slightly diflerent approacb to the works of visua} art created for the Utraquists, Luthelatrs, and Bohemian Brethren in 15th and 1óth century Boh mia than that normally adopted by medievalists and specialists in the early modern age. ln other Words, we could move beyond Classifying them simply in the period of time between the end of Gothic and th rise of Baloque, achieved with the help of tools developed fol the study of th art of both of these prominent epochs. In the case of Ren, aisSance art, this proposed model could at least to some extent help to provide a firm basis lor basic research, Which has so far 'not recieved the appropiate theoretíCal articulatiot1" and. thus tends to "float" outstde ony kínd oí theoretical íramework' .2 Between Late Gothic and Renaissance FrOm the Viewpoint of the state of academic knowled8e up till now and of the Way alt is usually received, the exhibition 'The Art of the Bohemian Reformation' was made up of two different parts. The first Was the art 0f What, in the way scholars divide up periods of Czech art, is termed Late Gothic (that is, works from the last third ol the 15th Century and tbe first quarter of the 1óth), and the second the art 0f the 'Bohemian Renais, sance', that is from th mid-lóth century up to the Battle of the White Mountain in 1ó20,3 The missin8 link in the chronolo8ical series, in other Words the Second qua ter of the 1óth century, has mostly (speaking math ematically) been neglected in the standald interpreta, tions. Bohemian Late Gothic alt has been Well studied and works on it are frequently published.a The fact that it is necessary to start dating it from the second third ol the 15th Century, because We have to include wolks of art produced throughout the legion, especially in Prague, fTom the 1430s onwatd, and because even during the Hussite wars (not even in Pra8!e) the Creation of woTks of art did not Come to a complete stop - this fact emer8ed some time ago in specialised research, particularly in the study of illuminated manuscripts. To8etheI ilith the Conviction of the djStinctive, positive content of the artistic representation of early Utraquísm, it was presented at the Wolld Cong ess of art history in 1992 by Robert Suckale. Thanks to th research that has been carried out since then, it is now clear that when Karel stejskal was the first person to draw attention to the existence of 'Hussite art' half a century ago, he Was far less mistaken than it may have ll ]l1 (, ll l LlX/2o11 L|X/2011 ll trl {, t} i l/ Matouš Radóuš, Epitaph for the Mayor of chludím, samuel Fontin Klatovsk (t ló2o) l614 ||ood, polrhramy, chrudim, chureh oI he Assumptbn o| ouí La.ly Repnducfron: of,ďej Jakubec (ed.), Ku věčnépamátce, olomou( 2007 appeared at the time- or to put it more precjse]y, the reality itself existed; it Was only necessary to find a more appropriate framework ťor describing and inter pretjng it than the Marxist,LeniniSt method allowed slP'skal in the ]o50s.' For examplo. František Šmahe] WaS able to thTow light on the exceptionally original pictoria] character of the polemical iconography of the HuSSiteS in the early 15th Century thanks to a culturál historical app oach that Was informed by the study of communication.ó A new feature of the culrent project, in telms of Late GOthiC art, is the incltrSion of those well known and extensively discussed Wolks of art Within a new interpretational flamework, Which may be termed the question of the confessiona| profile of Bohemian Late Gothic art.7 The second part of the altistic helitage inciuded in the exhibitjon 'The Art of the Bohemian Reformation' consists ot works oí alt that, liom the scholaTly and institutional viewpoints, belon8 t0 a diffeIent category - alt that is Classified under the term 'Bohemian Renaissance'. Perhaps the phlase'shifted 1óth centuly' could be used to describe the periorl from the accession of the Habsburgs to the Bohemian throne in 1527 to the Battle of the White Mountain in 1ó20, or perhaps to the enactment of the Renewed constitutional Rules Seven yeals later. With the telm'Bohemian Renais sance'We senSe an implied Contrast to the phrase 'German Renaissance', which Gelman art historians, with a greater or lessel nationalist olientatiotr, Coined in the first half 0f the 20th centuly to convey the allegedly distinctive chalacter of the ethnic variant of the sty] , which Was not supposed t0 be seen as simply the application of general Stylistic featules t0 a palticular territory, but as their specifiC transfolmation w, t"fi,,$. fir*it nl*rr til'-ťj &,iliiťťťi,fr,S;il; ,;i li ;] -. 2/ The resur ection of the dead at the Last Judtefrent, detall from the EpilaPh for samuel Fontin Klatovsk (t 1ó20) 1ó14 wood, polyhrcmy Chrudim, church of the Assumption oí our l6dy Reprcduction: ond ej ]akubec (ed.), Ku věčnépailálce, olomouc 2007 through the prism of the national charact r.3 In Czech art history, the Renaissance style in the CZeCh lands was in fact studied systematically primarily in terms of architecture.9 The painting and sculpture of the shifted lóth century, on the other hand, was easily liable to be marginalised, due to its poor artistic quality, The situation was aptly described by Ji ina Vacková When she Wrote about Bohemian figural art (Wjth the exception of the court of Rudolf IIJ,'It should be said that its deftning characteristic was stagnatton, a quality Ý hich means that the label "Renaissance" can be applied to tllese arte, facts primarily just íor orientation. For the work oí pooť standard that was produced in Bohemia and Moravía betyveen Gothic and Baroque tenaciously preserved the Late Gothic tradition I.,.].'|0 The amalgamation of the two entities into a single whole is surprising because the relationship between Late Gothic and Renaissance art in the Czech lands has by no means been free of problems in the alt history discourse. AS is shown by the assessment by Vacková that has .just been quoted, difficulties Were caused by the 'impulity' of Bohemian Renaissance, its Confus d and p rmanent'contamina tion' by elements that Were Seen as stylistic remnánts left over from the Late Gothic era, and Were thelefore evaluated in a ne8ative way by the modernist evolution ary model. Althou8h viktol Kotrba Was already writing about the phenomenon of'lr'achgotik'forty years a8o, a recent le-evaluation of his study, accompanied by a reassessment of thiS phenomenon in alchitecture, is 0nly slowly meeting with any response in Czech research.11 The question 0f Where the 'continued existence' of Late Gothic featules should be situated between 'sulviva]' and'revival'in oul context is likewise still to be Ie addlesSed in the figural disciplines.1' A by no means insignificant element in the Con, struction of a relationship between Late GothiC and Renaissance is the fact that these two themes ale sually d alt With by different authols and diffelent Volumes of histolical surueys. In Czech art history this approach is due to the we]l-known Convention of dividin8 Czech history and art history into Various periods, accolding to Which the watershed between these two peliods is the change of dynasty in 152ó. But trom resealch into cultural, economic and Social history it appeals that a more applopriate watershed denoting the 'end of th Miclrtle Ages' in the Czech lands h0uld be the period of the 1490s.13 The boundary between the art olthe Middle Ages and that of the Renaissance is 8enelally consideled to be so cleaHut and fundamental that it forms a turning-point that is pelceived to be 'natural'. The more the major stylistic Categories cease to be C0nvincing anc,l applicable in alt history practice, the more obvious become the problems of division into periods, c]osely linked to a territorial demarcati0n of the subject stud ierl and its interpretation, In practical terms, however, it is only the editols of large-scale seríes of historical surveys Who have to deal With these pToblems. DifiiCulties in conceptualising the boundaly between Late Gothic and Renaissance are also being encountefed by alt histolians in other Central Eulopean countries. The history of the visual arts in Austria I solved the problem by devotin8 its third volume jointly to the art 0f 'the late,Middle Ages and the Renaissance'.la The volume de.Voted to Gothic in the history 0f Slovak art Concludes With a methodologically Conceived study on the them of'transitional' expr ssions of style and the lelati0n ship between Renaissance, humanism and civic culture. In the followjn8 yo]ume, which covers Renaissance, not only do We find paintin8s and sculptuíes by the same artists and Workshops that Were already Ťepresented in the volume on the Gothic period, but also articles written by its edit0r Which examine this intermediat terrain.l'Hungarian alt hiStOIy was for a long time proud of the vely early reception of'pure' Renaissance at the coult of Matthias Corvinus, but today it appears that hele, too, We should speak more precisely only of speťific, evidently politiCalty motivated, Choices by a few fi8ules at the Court in Buda, who were influenced by the presence 0f ltalians in the retinue of oueen Beatrix of Aragon. Renaissance forms in Hungary appear to have been consciously Contrasted With contempolary Late Gothic conventions.ló The problems With revisions of the traditional seqUPncin8 0f art historv periods come, as is 8cner al]y known, flom the quantitative development of the field: mole and more publications and exhibitions are devoted to works of art which, at the time the basic conCepts and Categories of modeTn alt histoly Were taking shape, could sti]l be ] ft to one side_ The standald structure of stylistic definitions Was created in the Second hali 0f the 19th century on the basis of the seemingly cleal-cut matefial ffom the central artistic areas, in the case of Renaissance with the foCUS in Itaiy - and at the same time using the lou8h Critelia of a grand histolical detached Viewpoint in the style of the Hege, lian 'histofy of the mind'. A lar fIOm peliphera] role is played here by the fact that Renaissance iS an alt his, tory Cate8ory Which in a certain sense still has a key, paladi8matic character to this day. The very positive appreciation of the quatity of Renaissance art and its Study as palt of Eulopean humanism and neo-Platonism acquired an added ethical significance dudng the time of the second world war,'' But the identjfication of Renaissance art iorms with humanism has functiorred ltlllťlll Llx/2011 LIx / 2011 !i íri d"ť} i since the time of Jakob Burckhardt withjn a broader framework of Values, which through the glorjfication oi the culture of the cities of the [taljan trecento atrd quattlocento presented the basic claim to ]e8itjmacy of modern Capita|ism and the bour8eoisie. lt Was most aptly interpleted by the Marxist work by Freclerick Antal, member of the third generation 0f the Vienna school of Art History and a pupil of MaX DvO ák, on the social background to Florentine paintin8, Which Came out in a czech tTanslation only Six years aftel its publication in Engtish.'3 To put it in somewhat over simple, and yet apt terms, every European nation needed to show that it had its own Renaissance in order to legiti mise its entry into modern bourgeois Europe,l'But il the political notiOn of the bourgeoisie no longer strikes a chold in our Contempolary worid, { should not be Sulprised il in the division of alt history into periods, the Renaissance Concept has also lost its stable íbrm of a comprehensible and vivid Watershed and Clitelion. A possibility of finding Some orientation in this Complex of cultural history and art-history prob]ems iS offered by a Clarification ot the terminology used, which Was called fol by studies from the viewpoint oť the tension between the Centre and the periplrery. This Was proposed in the 1970s by Jan Biabstocki, Who not surprisin8ly came íiom'peripheral' Poland. He distjnguished between the use of the term RenaisSance, firstly to indicate a historical epoch, secondly to desclibe the ioTms of art connected with human ism (in the sense oí the historical ]iterary movement of the 14th-lóth centuries, not the 8enera] recognition of the values of humanjty'o), and thirdly to describe the alchitectural and ornamental forms aLL'antica or Specific figulal Conceptions fol paintin8S.'' A leaction to Bialostocki írom CZeCh alt history circ|es was soon folthcoming with JaromíI Neumann's introduction to the book R naissance Art tn Bohemia.'' As editor, Neu, mann WaS C0nsistent in includin8 in this book about Renaissance art a chapter by Ii ina Vacková and Ji ina Ho eiší,devoted to the art of the lagiellonian ela.'3 In the same year a WOfk was published in which !-rederico ZeIi ploposed a simjlar distinction, With an internal differentiation within ltalian Renaissance itself, indeed even Within Florentine Renaissance; li i Kroupa curIently suggests the use of the term 'shadow Renaissance' rather than Zeri's 'unauthentiC, false'.'a A more precise terminology allowed Neumann to'target' individual Works of art displayin8 to a greater or lesser deglee elements oí the all'antica form and to study them as Renaissance art, Without it bejng necessary to resolve in greatel detail the question of to what extent and in What sense Renaissance is present in the giYen place and time in the sense of a historical epoch. The only other systematic discussion of the theoretical defi nition of Bohemian Renaissance is an article by Ji í Kropáček, He leaves the question of poch open, and Comes to the conclusion that there is justificatjon for aSsuming that Renaissance developed from Late GothjC around the 1520s. If W8 Wish to apply the term Bohemian Renaissance t0 figural and decorative art as Well, then in Kropáček'S VieW jt Would be better to use the term Mannerism.25 The Culrent resealch, pub]ication and possibly also exhibition projects devoted to the Jagiellon era in the Bohemian lands (one 0f them headed by ]i íFajt in Leipzig, the other by Ji íKuthan in Prague) itrclude Within the Scope 0f the Works of alt studied those With both Late Gothic and Renaissance characteristics, withoUt feeling any need to go into methodolo8ical juStifiCation 0f this. The framelvork that defines the pIOjeCtS remains po]itical, or more precisely dynastic.'ó They can thus follow the pra8matic solution that has pledOminated in Iecent decades and which does not raise questions of detailed ClaSSifiCation acColdin8 to style at all. The standald time at lvhich Renaissance (Whjch is however usually identified With Mannerism oI North, ern Renaissance) js usually considered to start in the czech lands is the mjd lóth century. From the Moravian Viewpoint, however, this is already 'Late Renaissance'.r7 new theme, or mole specifically a new framewolk, into Moravia, thanks to its ge0glaphica] Openness to the the field Whose nature and exíent l have just extreme Danube Basin, is mole important fof the rereption ly briefly sketched out, For the establish;ent of this 0f artistic insPilation tiom ltalY via Hun8ary than is riam""oit< to have any point, we need first of all to f6rBohemja (0r Silesia), and it has,be n systematically mu]ate in theoretical telms a Conceptua| mortel of the studied bY Ivo H]obil, one of the few Czech art histoTi, 'art of the Bohemian Reformatjon,. ónly once we have ans to systematica]ly and consistently dea] to the same such a model can the lesults ofstudies ofartworks and e,xtent with both the Middle A8eS and the Renaissance. topics become genuine art historical interpretations. H explains the existence 0f an independent phase of In a recent article, in which l considered the mode] of'Early Renaissance' in Moravia beÍbre the mid-lóth Late Gothic in czmn ari nistory, I have already briefly centuly by the Specific nature of the political situation described this acaaemic iool, *'ni.i, *u, discussed in there at the end of the 15th century and above all by Czech aft history by va"iav nicnter.r. Pelhaps it is the activity of Roman Catholic circ]es in the Olomouc worthwhile consiá".Íns Ň ir;; in g..ut.. a"tuit. Condiocese. Hlobil also PlaYed a maior palt in the concep- ceptual models * io"i."a"i. pr^vin unurogou, .or" tion of the exhibition with the indicative title 'From in the humanities tu tnut oii.rt'rt r'" t u*it lr". in tno Golhic lo Rpnaissanle'(l9aq]. which lor lhe firsl time vslpm ofthp natural s"ien."".'nt ir," irr"iir.,r,"yincorporated into a coherent Whole Late Gothic and also have the Charactel or. ..iuntiti. pu.uaigm, in the 'EarlY' Renaissance works of art before the mid,lóth sense of a significant ."u-pt" ,utr,".'ttun-of a set of CenturY in MOIavia (and what is today Czech Silesia), rutes.33 Just like a paradigm, a model otien tunctions in Just like Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann,'3 the creators of an unreflected wa . lt is ňermeneutic-in it"."..u tnut the Moraviai'Silesian proiect worked fuom the assump- it is not an idea formulated in a clear_cui way, wtrich tion that in the Bohemian lands Reformation and Ren- could be verified with specific data, ,but ii aescriaes aissance were in mutualiy exclusive Contladiction to Comprehensionastheintirplayofmovementi|presenta, each othet They regarderl Bohemian Utraquism aS a tion Lnd interPretation. The anticipation oíthe mffining source of active resistance to the reception of the Ren- that iuides our Comprehension of a text is not a subjec_ ajssance style, a resistance that did not subside until tive íunction, but íS determined by the reciprocity that the second ha]ť of the 1 Óth Century, In Kaufmann's view, Connects us with the presentatíon.'But this ieciprocíty is the situation was the same in fhe Gelman terlitories continually being shaped through our relatíonshípWith that had adopted LUtheranism, Hlobil assumes thal the the presentatíon. It is not simply a precondítion Which humanist milieu ofthe olomouc diocese constituted the we are then always subject toj we atablish it oursel es, sole exception in its stron8er reception of Renaissanc if we unrlerstand, iíWe partfuipate inwhat goes on in the forms belore 1550, followed only by the 'influence' oí presentation, and in so doing we ourselvěs continue to the coult milieu in Buda on the court 0f the Catholic detemine lt'34 Within the fmmework of the episteme Jagiel]Onian king in Prague. The confessionat proíile of and of the current scientific paradigm we are evidently this model ol Renaissance alt in the Bohemian lands goin8 to ask the question 'What is Renaissance about thus appears to be Roman Catholic: explicitly up till the Renaissance siyle?'35 less and less frequently today. the mid 1Óth centuly, but without any examination of More often in our work we will need ansrers to questhe question as to What then changed in the cultural, tions like: What ale we sayin8 when we use the term historical, Ieligious, and political spher s in the course Renaissance or Renaissance uit? Whut do these wolds of the subsequent decades. In recent works, a reflec denote, in which semantic framework do they function on the methodological nature ofWhat is expressed tion? What is theil relationship to other words denotby the metaphor of tar8eted movement in the 'space' ing Similar, borrlerline, or disslmilar concepts? If the between Gothic anrl Renaissance is to be found plimari- individual characteristics ofRenaissance forms remain, lY in Pavel Kalina's book on Benedikt Ried,'' Although metaphorically speaking, jndividual elements wolds the author lelerled to the Curlent debate on this theme in a Certain system of discourse and statements _ then in international art history, he himself did not ventuIe neither the language which we leconstruct flom them, much beYond a critique of the older Czech concepts, nor the way in which we ale able to understand it, need Which are today no lonseí appropliate, and did not offer to be strictly delimited by a Concept defined in terms 0f his dM alternative art historical interpretation. Kalina essence. As With the model, it is possible to WoIk with also pointed out the need for a better definition of the these elements oI With the explanatory structure as category'realism' in Renaissance art.30 The careíully a Whole Within a dynamic framework, ieacting sensielaborated ProPosal by Ii íKroupa, who suggests char tively to the specific historical circumstances. Á major acterising c ntlal European'shadow Renaissance'art advantage is the possibility of adapting the model to aS'the application of a stgntÍtcant detail [all'antica] as the situation in diffelent countries, without losin8 the an eLevated and memorial fom' applies specifically to unifyin8 idea , Which is a quite essential requirement the study of architecture.3l if we want to talk about Renaissance art outside ltaly. ítis on this methodological basis that research is now The modelof the Bohemian Reformation ff,'f',ii'i5r";"i:lJt"i"H##ir;H:l'*rTiT:1' mentioned above (from the viewpoint of formal criti, The exhibition and Publication proiect 'The Art of the cism anrl meaning), anil confessíonalkaíion (from the Bohemian Refolmation' did of course also bring some viewpoint of Cu|tural and political history). We Can fo]little-known wolks of art to the attention of a bloader low this up by asking Whether the visual arts in the pubtic, but its main Contrjbution was in introducin8 a Bohemian lands played a part ínthe process of confes RENAlSSÁNC AND REFORMÁTlON lN CZECH ART HJSTOeY 3/ Jeroslav Ffá8ne\ Bethlehem chapel 1952 recat truction of its appenftnce in the years 1394 1548, PrtEue, old ToW, housc no. 255/I Phoío: Inslituťe for Art Hbtory oí the Academy oí s.lffu Pr or lh? ( z?rh R?pubhl - l \ t . rrnqll? . illllťlll LlX/2o11 Llx / 2o 11 tl ll} {" íl i sionali ation, Which was evidently the strongest social movement in lóth{entury Centra] Eulope? And how Would it be possible to monitor this in the quite specific situation of the Czech lands? When studying th alt of the Bohemian Reformation, the question of the con, fessional alIegiance of those Commissionin8 the work and of the public will undoubtedly be a central issue. By contrast, tryin8 to establish which denomination specific individual artists belonged to Wilt probably be of minor importance, because in the Transalpine lands in th lsth and 1óth Centuries we still cannot expect artistic autonomy to the extent that it Woutd impin8e on the question of Confession. Indeed, it Was still quite normal fbl craftsmen to Carry out commissions impartially across th confessional divide in the following century.37 The limited interest in our theme 0n the part of art historians forms part ofthe overall attitude ofthe CZeCh histo iťal memory to the theme of the Bohemian Refor mation and its culture. It is probably due to integration of the text into the German discourse that in art history literatule until lecently We come across the theme of the Reformation and confessional distinctionS, so far as I am aware, only in the chapter on sacred architecture in the tome Renaissance ínBóhmen, published by the Collegium Carolinum in Munich in 1985.33 0n the other hand, for example, only ten years ago Ji íKropáček Could provide an overview of Renaissance art in the region of north-Western Bohemia Without a single ref, erence to the Reformation.39 More systematic attention Was devoted to our theme particularly by Jan Ro}t when Writin8 on Cranach's iconography of the Divine Law and Grace.l0 ln his study on JáChymov/oachmisthal he placed events from economic md religious history in parallel With Works 0f art, Without attemptin8 any deeper art historical conclusions,l' A number of indi vidual articles on the theme of the visual culture of the Bohemian Relormation were written in connection With the eight interdisciplinary symposia in the series Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, organ ised bi-annually by David Holeton and Zdenek David.4' Recently ond ej Jakubec, in particulat has used the confessional identification 0f the time t0 stlucture his systematic study; he specialises in the Bishopric of 0Iomouc and not long ago olganised a groundbreaking exhibition and, \^/ith a Collective of co-work, ers, published a catalogue, de\.oted to 1óth- and early 17th century epitaphs,43 I mvself have been involved in another projeci, Which approached visual alt as an impoltant Communication medium of the Refolmation movement.44 HoWeveI, the question that I am attempt, ing to examine in this article is a different one: how the Reformation Can be Undelstood as a determining element in the art hjstorical interpretative structure and the evaluation of the extant works of art, The Bohemian Reformation is a Category derived from church and leligious history. Its Central point of reference is the Bohemian Confession, the Coníession oí the holy Christian faith oí all three estates of the Kingdom of Bohemia that receive the Body and Blood of the Lord Chist under both klnds.a5 This treatise, typiCaI of its time, defined the dogmatic basis on Which representatives of part of the Czech Utraquists, the Unity of Brethren, and the Lutherans (of the Augsburg Conf ssion) agreed as an acceptable compromise, and Which they submitted to the land diet and the Habsbur8 Emp for Maximilian II in 1575. Although the Emperor, the Catholics, and some of th Uíaquists lejected the Bohemian Confession, it nevertheless became the basis fof negotiations on legalising the Reformation churches, Which was achieved a generation later witb the Letter oí Majesty on Reli+íous Freedom, issled by Rudolf II in 1ó09. This integrating approach to the Reformation in the Kingdom of Bohemia suIprisingiy differs íŤom ůe exclusive strategies that dominated in Europe at the time. It Was part of a specific strate8y for legalising Protestants in a Countly which was the only one in Europe to be able to look back on nearly a century ald a half of a practical policy of religious tolerance, While the Utraquists had been functionin8 lesally as a Church since the Compacts of tsasel had been signed in 143ó, the Lutherans and the Unity of Brethren Were obli8ed to íesort to confessiona] Compromises, as exemplified by the Bohemian Confession, in order to be able to apply this le8ality to their own communities. From this outline, even Without any detailed theo]ogical ana|ysis, it is C]ear that the Category of the Bohemian R formation includes a considerable de8fee of internal variation.aó lt Covers a felatively long peliod, stalting with the B0hemian critics of the crisis of the church in the late 14th century, such as Milič ofKromě ížand in particular Matěj of IanoV; and continuíng with Jan Hus and his followers alound the year 1420; the period of the Compacts of Basel and the establishment of a (rela, tively) independent Church institution in the mid,l5th century, known as Utraquism; the Unity of Brethren as a radical Bohemian church; and also the RefoImation Chuíches with Lutheran and Calvinist olientations, and their interaction with the older Bohemian church landscape, Al] this occupied a period of 250 yeals, from the ]3BOs to the officiai ban 0n tie n0n-Catholic churches as a lesult of the political defeat of the Bohe mian estates aftel the Battle of the white Mountain in 1ó20. The Study 0f the Bohemian Reformation as a sub.ject of scholarly hist0rical interest became topical particulally in the situation following the Creation of the czechoslovak state after the end of the Filst world War, when in Decembel 1918 the Evangelical Church 0f CZeCh Brethr n Was olíicially establiShed, with reference t0 the foundations laid by the Bohemian Confession in 1575. This historical and national legitimisation was essential fol this new protestant church in order to establish a profile that was distinct fuOm both the Roman catholic church and another new chuIch that Was in the proceSS of íblmation, the CZeChoslovak Hussite Church (Which oflicially deClared its existence in January 1920). In comparison With the enolmous interest in the Hussite movement, however, the theme of Bohemian religious life during the nearly 200-year period between the battles of Lipany in 1434 and the White Mountain in 1ó20 has until recently received relatively little attention.47 The revivai of interest in the Bohemian Refolmation and its cultural dimension during the last decade has been largely due to the activity of the proiecl Bohemian Rehrmation and Relť qious Practice which Was mentioned ealli L]3 In spite of this, Czech research has so fal had little impact in the context of European oI Central European lesearch 4/ MonoErammist lP, Altarpiece oí st John the Baptist in ahe church of our Lady before Trín ca. 1520? wood, Pra8ae, church oJ Louf Lady beíoft T rt Photo: ]an Gloc into the culture of the Reformation churches, with the Iesult that there is still Viltually no awareness in that context of the remarkable specifiC features of the situation in Bohemia, arising lrom the fact that in the 15th century Bohemian Utraquism was the first and, until Luther made his appearanCe, the only institutional and do8matic Christian a]telnative to the Roman Catholic Church (apart from the Eastern Chulches) to functi0n successfully over a long period. I Will attempt to identity the main reasons for this limited interest, in the awareness that lack of interest iS not something'non-existent', but on the Contrary iS a quite definite activity, whose aim, not always a ConsCious one, is displacement and forgettin8,a9 A not insi8nifiCant role Was evidently played by the poor artistic quality of the lrrork ploduced (which has already been referred t0), if we compare it with the best works of European (especially Italian) Late Renaissance, Mannerist, and Early Baroque art. As long as art history Was Conceived as the Story of artists ol genius oI ol development of th World spirit reflected in Canonical Styles, then tsohemian religious art in the 1óth cen ttrry - and indeed secular art dulin8 this peliod, with the exception of the Late Mannerist Work of a few outstanding artists at the Court 0l Rudolf Il would be merely an uninterestin8 Cinder l]a. It is only When We approach art history aS a social history 0f images that the Survivin8 epitaphs and illuminated graduals Start to desene serious attention and take 0n signifi Cance. Their absolute artistic quality, however, is not increased by doing this , that is, if Our nolmativ definition of altistic quality is relative closeness to the canonical Creations of the grand Story oí the frne arts. But this is not the only possibility in the post-modern world, If We do not Compare a work With the ideal of a Sin8le, absolute standald situated somewbere outside the world, but allow fol the fact that a component of quality that cannot be ignored is the Wolk's historiltl}lellí L|X,/2o11 L|x/?o11 !! rlt i, tx Í cally síťuated social si8niíicanCC, then $,e (;an COnCec]ť that thir aft produc0d iry the Bohenliilt} Refofmation in the lóth cenluli/ js not only Charmingly naive and hist,,ri, allr cJUlIUI lll. 1,1ll also r i.u,rll1 attru, ttt, rn.l Cmotional]y implessive. There i still no point in con parin8 Matouš Radouš $,ith Caravaggio but thel0 is some point in attributin8 to the paintef entleprenfllr flom ChIudim the qualities that his wOIk gCnuinely 5/ Bohemian confession, title paEe, printed by Michal Španovsklj of Lisov and Pacov 1ó2o Libnrf oí lhe Pretnonstatensian monasten,in Stmhov Phofu: ]an Cloč has: it points to a dimension of the spilitual World and the intellectual holizon oi the tOWnspeople of the Bohe, mian Reformation, and it is also possible t0 see in it somethin8 which we as CZeChs Can consider t0 be a factor in oul own identity attention to the themes of the larger Wofld and thc transcendent depths, lvhich, howevel, manifests itself Cautious]y and sot}erly, With its feet on thc ground, so t0 speak, '[he 'CZeCh' character of the tsohemian Reforma tiOn presents a no less prominent issue When studying il. fherp iS epr|cinIV no point in trying l0 idenlity il hr addin8 loPPlhPr lhP fťdlur.\ lhal hd\e funcliOned a5 signs of a slav ethnic identity Since the 19th centuly, Here we are dealing With 'Bohemian' in a tellitorial. not an ethnic sense. lt appeals aS if tlie Bohemian ficf 0r]natjOn, WhiCh is undoubledly t(]Ilitoria] in nature, tood in Cotrtlast to the C7ech llcnaissance, WhiOh is elhnjc or lingujstjc, I emphasíse the'appear.r'J becaLLse the telm the czech llenaissance lvas a]so c0ined in the 19th Centuly t0 l]e plecise, il Was tbrn}U]ated b)" Kalel Chytil and in realji!, tve are not yel able to di]t0l]nine fcliably thc ethniC aíTiliation ol thc patlons, publiC, and artists 0f that time. Th," use ol i)oth CZeCh anc.l German langua8es, and the choico betu,een the lwo, Were m0tivated in the lóth Centuly by Other Cjon sidelations than explessing a modcfn national identity, ]t Can be assumerl tbat the inhabitants of thosf) alcas that Wefe ]inquistiCally rni\ed (Which inťiuiled most io\ťns) understooi] both languages.50 llesearch efs jn the late ]9th Ccntulv an(i the J'írst ha]f oi the 20th century,, fol]owjn8 the lead 0f the fOunding í!ther ol modern Czcch art hjstoly \bjtěCh l]irnbaum, dcvel oped a patliotiC visiOn 0Íthe lóth centuIy as the golden a ae oí'CZeCh history, Which they transf'erfed íIOm the linguistir; fie]d and applied to alt hjstol}-, as We]l, in paltiCular to arťhitecture,5l In f]oin8 S0, the}, Were ablc t0 follow on fIOm tb0 genela]lv Shaled (]0mmunication setup of the sernnd hall of the 19th Century, When neo Rcnaissance arohitectural iot,ms rvcre usecl as a selí: identifying sign of CZeCh emancipatoly politi.s, Aftel the r;risis of Nazism and the expatIiatiOn of thc aierman population from Czechos]ovákia in 1945/4ó, however, the situatjon a]tered Substantia]Iy, The l.Uthefan COm ponent of the Bohenian Ref'Ormation be8an to bc more shalply pelceived as something that ditl not beiong t0 t}e CZeCh hisk)Iy of Cu]lure and art, but t0 another Catcgoly, namely German Cultulal and art histofy.!'At the Same time, as a result of the same expatliation, a substantial numbel 0f the relevant works ol alt found themse]ves in areas aff'ected by socia] and cuitural degrádation, and man,v ol Lhem suffeled ilreversible dam age - a sobering example of the mnsequences, fatally IhrcalPnln8 lhP mJlel,ial {Ub\lanee 0f lhc ( ullUlal heritage, can be seen today in the tOWn of JáChymOv, Late Gothic Was Without diíriculty Claimed for C^e(:h speakers, and, thfou ]h the Simple, though sophisli, {alPll. .pmanIi. (lpPrarion ol irlerrtiltinq .Fohcmian' ['česky'] with 'Czech' |also 'česk]i'l, it was designated a\ ( /.{ h drl in d notr elhnii dIl\ clednsed scns.,' By Contrast, the art oílhe period from the accession 0f the Habsbulgs to the Bohemian crown til] the Batt]e of the Whjte Mountain no longer, in the post seťond Worid 1Var situation, Ieceived its traditional patliotic appreciation, the most plominent lesults 0f Which jn art history Circles Were Birnbuam'S texts 0n architec ture refelled to above, and, from the opp0site end of the methodolo8ical scale, Chytil's studies on paintin8.5a li is lruP lhal thi( PlPValion oI lhe ndliondl sigtrilir anr e oí the B0hemian Culture of the 1óth century Consisted in a hi8h ievel of appreciation ior the role of the lan- 8uage, reí'erred t0 aS lumanist Czech, and that this Was not, in tact, Ielevant for the visual aItS. HOweYer, the Ieason for the change in approach after the seOond World WaI was not methodologica] reflection and self criticism, but the new political situatjon. The Current Chan8e in position on this question is likewise due to the politica] situation, specifiCally to the need to deal With the oyerlooked or ne8lected aspects of our own hisbry as a membel state 0f the European Union, In keepin8 With thc rosults 0f the tal8eted historjcal res(.arch 0[ lhe last twenty } als, it i5 today possible to see the hiSbry of the Bohcmian Gelmans as an inte, glal part 0f tht] Cominon histoly 0l tlre inhabitants of the Czech lands. We are nOW leaving behind us the Strírtegy of appfoprialion, Whereby oitheI the Gelmans laid ťlaim fu CZ{x]h Cultural artef'acts, oI the CZe.hS Without fi)mment absolbed those that had been {]re ated by the Gelman speakjng population ofthe Countly beforc thejl forced resettlement in 1945 +ó. lf rve constluct a history of the coexistence of the German and Czech-speakjnB inhabitants of the CZech ]ands as an unbiased description of hvo histolical memories, then we can also acknowledge the proper place ol arteťact ConneCted With the Lutheran Refolmation.55 As I havf] alleady mentioned, RenaiSsáncc art and the llussite movement Were an impoflan1 theme fOI l\4arXiSt historio8raphy, Under the neW politiCal re8irne after 194t], CZe.h N,lalxist scholarS rejníblced theiI 0mplrasis on the levo]Utionafy phase of thtl BOhemian ReformatiOn, Which the COnmUnist regime clajmed as theil own histolical legjtimisatio|, lvhile at the same time it scrved aS a dialectical addition t0 the study 0f the lo]e p]ayed by lhis pefiotl in the estabiishment of b0ulgeois society.5Ó ln the Situation after the second \{'orlrl War, there Wi]s a cleaI incloase in tbe tendenCy to Split up the history of the fiIst lletblmation into its levoluti0nafy palt, in Other WOldS the stoly 0f the Hussite mOyement before the sjgnin8 of the COnrl]acts of Bascl, and the 'It]maining' period (which lastecl for neally two CentulieS), Which WaS conYentlonally con demned as a time of unheloic ComplomiSe, if not of lack of principle, It is only in the last few years thitt sone consideration has Stalted t0 be giyen to the possil]ilities ol more acculate terminology, for example intr0ducing the telm'Hussitism', rvhiCh WoUld COVeI the peliod Up b the ilse 0f Lutheranism at 1east. With out the nced fol it in the patriotic discoulse legitimis ing bourgeOis sOcit]ty, interest in lóth cntuIy BOhemian art 8ri]dually petered out, Ali that Iemained WaS an intelest in architectule, suppolted on the one hand by Bilnbaum's canonit;al studies 1a line Continued in palticular by Eva Šamánková and Iarmila Krčá]ová), and nourished 0n the 0thel by So(;ial practice, lvhereby aftel the maSs eXpropliatiOn (so Ca]led nationalisation) of historjcal monumenls in the 19505 jt became a }rpu]aI national custom to yisjt castles and chateaux, whose arehitcctufe leplesented Lho main f00us of the l]ohemian RcnaissanCe style. The Gcrman connotationS ol'LutheraniSm, the Con tcmpt fOr the spirit oí ComplomiSe of Iater Utraquism, the emballassment at the bourBeois patriotic intel pfetation of the art 0ť the tin]e, aDd, aťter the fall 0f Communism in i9B9, the clisregarcl fOI the LIussite movement all oť thi c0mbined to create an attitude !vhiCh Without t0o mUCh exaggelatiOn Can be desCrjbed aS one oíforgettiDg thc art of the Bohemian }lef0lmation. It is thefefole not sulpriSing that until recently modern aft histoly did nOt knOW muCh about it, and that a basic study 0f the extensive material still lies betore us. lts iconoglaphy is at ílrsl glance obscure, because it intentionaliy differs from tradjtiona] meili eval jConography ald of course from that 0f Cont m pofaly Catholic alt. Often, hOWeVeI, it makes use of extrenely refined methodS t0 aChieve this. It is diffi0ult to pin down the Style of thtj fi8ufal anií olnamenta] alt usin8 the categorieS of influenCe and develOpment and the yardstick of abso]ute qUality Within the flamework ol the tine arts, The national identitv oi the wolks of arl Can only be establíShed With difliculty amidst the numerous demonstrable imp0rts on thc one hand and the conviction mentioned eal]ier that Lutheranism was a foreign element, on lhe othor Even an apploach based on histolical social functions js not without its rlifficuIties: graduals, hymnals, and epjtaphS feplesent, from the viewpoiot of thc genelal study of both the late Middle Ages and the Relaissirnce, somethin8 0ť a stlange mar8inal categoly - Whcreas in the Czech Context they form a maiolity 0f the altefacts lhat have been preserved.57 And last but by n0 means leaSt, indeed pcrhaps the most important factor: s0 far We havc insuffiCient knowledge ol thc Se]f:jdentifiCation of the indilidual non Catholic gloupin8s in Bohemia at the time (Luthefan, L]tlaquist, and Unity of Breth rcn) jn terns ol their d0ctfino, ]jturgy and religjous plactjc . HeIe a significant role iS played and Unfortunately Wi1] alrtays be play{]d by the fact that it Was not possible to oíTicial]y register as an adherent of the Augsburg Confession or of the tJnity of Blethren until ]ó09, AnOtheI major factor is that the stuiy oíboth Chronological sections iS made rlifficult by th.. fate at undelstanilably liefell lvorks of Rcfolmation aIt dudng the re Catholicisation campai_qn in the 17th and 1Bth (jcniuries, When lhey WeIe dc]jberate]y Cí]nSigned to 0blivion by destroying them. The ícOling of shamc that some lepresentatives ()f the Ronan CathOijc clrulch evident]y t]xperiencc in ťelation to thiS appr0ach, and Which they rljsp]ayed in their opposition to the Concep, tion of tbe exhibition (paradoxir;ally roí'elring t0 the supposcdly Marxist LeniniSt CharaCter oť anything cOn nei]ted lvi{h the llussiie movemeni) is out 01'place and unnecessary l)e.ause it iS pr0fbundly ahjstoli.a1, íf images í\,ere at that time primarily means of conlmuni Cation, then it Was qujte natural and in its Way logi{]al and justified if the victori0us side needed to destroy them, and relatin8 this to tOday's stan(lalds of Cu]tulal dcVelopment and Consefvati0n of mOnumonts Woult] be quite inapplopliate. Theses on a possible future model for 1óthcentury Bohemian art lt Will ihus evidently bc nOcessar.v t0 systematica]ly feconsideI thc reIationship bcth,een th0 Bohomian ]lef ormation and not only Late Gothic art, hut also and in palticulaf'Bohemian Renaissance' art, llron the Stalt it is c|ear that the.e]ationship b tween llenais sance and Reformation js not one hetween'folm'and '()ntent'. ln my vie\ť, the collectiol displayi]d at the exhibition undcrmined Itlobil and kauíman's n0tion of an exclusivo opp0sition between Ronaissance and Reíblmation (before the mirl lóth 0eiltuly)-j8 ^ plobe into llungafian alt history u,ou]d seem t0 jndiaaíc that a distinCtjon belween a Renaissa]rC0 nobjljty and CouIt irld Late GothiC towns is [0t tenab]e eithel allhou8h iD any Case this hils not been proposod in thc BOh* lo ll rll a. íl í Llx / 2o11 LlX / 2o 11 mian Context,sg It seems likely that it Will be extreme ly difficult to sepalate representation of the religious and social identities amon8 the burghers in the town setting.Óo I think a better starting-point for filtule study might be one of the last articles by losef Macek, published in 1988 under the titIe Hlavní problémy renesance v Čuhticha na Morayě [The pfincipal issu s lelating to Renaissance in Bohemia and Moravia], Which unfortunately haS leceived little attention.ór MaCek rejects the identification 0f the Renaissance witb the Reformation, and comes to the conclusion that the d0minant f ature in 1óthtenfury Bohemian Culture Was in fact the Ref ormation. [n his view, the term RenaissanCe Cannot be correctly used in the Bohemian Context in the Sense of the desi8nation for an epoch, but only to charactelise the form of a celtain paIt of the art produced at the time. (It js not Without inter st that he refers to the study by Zeri mentioned above, Which Was topical at the time he Was Ivritin8.) Howeve\ it is necessary to colrect MaCek's overly essentialist understanding of the telm Renaissance style, which iS today no longer appropliate, on the basis of more lecent approaches. one of them, Iefelred to above, Shiíts the focus to the si8nifiCance of stylistic forms Within the framework ol Socia] Communication. Atrother impoltant tool Will be an understanding of the inherent characteI of Reformation, and specifically Lutheran art, as a distinctive Value in its own rjght, not simply the absence of the featules that We are used to considering as standard, or pefhaps it Would be better to say aS the deíault Set ting, for visual art in the 15th t0 17th Centudes. This applies not on]y to iconography, but also to form, as is indicated by the quotations further on in the present alticle from the pioneering w0rk by Ioseph L. Koerner on Reformation images. It will also be interesting t0 see new alternative ways of defining the typical characteriStics of Renaissance art, WhiCh will no longer be restricted Simply to seeking out the foIms of all'antíCa. one such alternative iS the recognition that Renaissance art Works bring to the fol an instability in terms 0f time (something which is an intlinsic characteris tic of Works of alt as such) by deliberately Combining references to the past with the anachronism of radi ca! continuity.ó'An assessment like this Iesolves the ploblem mentioned earlier, Whereby the 'surviva]'of Late Gothic'contaminates' Renaissance. A fllltheI Significant tlait of Renaissance W0rks Can be recogtrised in the rational, systematjc Way in Which they employ the individual explessive elements of their'langua8e', and in which Can be seen the emeIgin8 awareness of our inrlependence fIOm nafure,ó3 Today, to0, it is possible to re asSeSS in retrospect a little-known book by otto Benesch, Who attempted a deíinition of the nature of Transalpine Renaissance art by Suggesting that it shared with Italy, not the íorms or au'antica, but new oCCult and natural Science paradigms, repleSented in particular by Paracelsus.óa lts further development is pfesented by the pelspective, Which is evidently for Czech art history the most interesting one, Which recognises behind the Late Gothic and post-Gothic forms the same intellectual paradi8ms of discovering nature that we are familiar with from ltalian Renaissance and humanist culture.ó5 on the basis of these sources ol inspilation I would like to put forwald for discussion and as a possible basis for future study seven theses, relating plimalily to the art history of the 1óth Century in Bohemia and Molavia,óó 1. First and foremost we should be aware that the major, general q/le that forms the framework fof the 'shifted 1óth centuly'is not Renaissance but Mannerism and Early Baroque.ó7 Burckhardt's original notiOn, adopted and re-Wolked by Marxism, of the esSentially mutuaI interdependenCe between Renaissance forms and the dse and estab]ishment of the bourgeoisie, can n0 longer pass muster today in the face of a number of new histolical insights. The view associated With this notion, that individual Styles somehow'gIoW up organically' from the socio economic situation, Which their lolms leflect 0r i]lustIate, Can no longer be applied today e;theI, and the same goes fOI the concept of styles aS ideal entities Which of theil own accord, but with differing rlegrees of jntensity and sucCeSS, embody themselves in individual works.ú8 Today we understand the tlansfer of the form and content of an artistic Style in terms of CommuniCation, representation, and symbolic forms. Thus in the CZeCh lands in the 1óth Centuly valious patrons fot various reasons 8ave priority to Certain artistic forms When CommisSioning wolks, forms which, as a fashionab]e system or language, they encountered most often in ltaly, the Alpine Iands, or the Danube Basin. lt was thelefore natural that these were the foŤms that wele current and contemporary at that time, in other words Manner, ism and Early Baloque, and, if Renaissance forms WeIe used at all, then they Were only the'Late'ones, They Commissioned artefacts fr0m altists Who Were Capable of Creating a Visua]ly Communicative - oI by Contrast, Whele required, plovocatively new - expressive Whole. This had to lesonate With the needs and aims of Bohemian society, inc]uding the religious needs and func, tions. one 0f the Consequences of this is logically that a 'pure' form of Italian Renaissance outside ltaIy Was the exception lathel than the lu]e and should not be seen as an ob.iective or a yardstick of a developed society, Indeed, adaptation to ]ocal Conditions evidently had to be a Condition for a new style to be able to Communicale somelhing and to bc acrepted. 2. Evidently 0f Central importance in an art histofical aSSessment is the ťact that the period from the first half ol the 15th Century to the beginnin8 of th l7th includes a key turning point the establishment of the Category 0f the aesthetically funCtioning image, in other Words a shift in the nature of the image towalds a more 'artistiC' character The fact that around the year 1500 at the papal and Medici COurts and in venice alt, ists started to regard themselves aS Creative individu als inspired 'from heaven', and that Diiler brought this notion of the emancipated artist to Niirnberg, does not mean that the artisan Character of altiStiC production that had existed up till then Suddenly and automatically Vanished. on the ContfaTy, durin8 the 1óth Centuly we Can obsefve a 8rowth in the guild system amons artists in Bohemia.ó'The transformation applied rather to what was expected of imases, includin8 religious ones, and this occurred equally in the Mannerjsm of the Cinquecento and in Reíbrmation Germany, lmages ceased to be lines of communication to the transcendental, and became Windows opened to the reality of the terrestrial 6/ Lucas cranach the Elder, Luthe preachint tó the contrégation in Wittenberg, predella of the WittenberE alta 1547 oil, Wood, stldtkirche witknberg Řeproduction: Joseph L. KNňq Th,":::;::ť; world or presentels of a djdactic message. The genuine Reformation religious image, 'manifesting all we need to know about it, I...] seems to do our exegetical hjork íor us. And having done With us, it resísts re-entry by qther means, í...l Shaped less as a picture to be interpťeted than ds the interpretation oí a píCture, the Reíormation image mtrrors the interpretative enteryrise in which it here stands.'70 3. Modern state bordels are irrelevant for an understanding of Works of art created in the 1óth Centxly. The very fact that in the 1óth Century it is still only possible t0 talk about a state as We understand it With reservations indíCates that the political bolders of that time Cannot be significant íactors in an intelpreta tion of the art ofthe Bohemian Refolmation,'lhe ethnic bordeIs of the time cannot as yet be determined eitheI; we only know the borders of specific communication entities, those delimited by written lecords in the Czech and German lan8uages. This, however, tells us little about the use of motheI tongues. Communication entities defined in economic or political telms Would be represented by differently drawn bt)rders. lt iS probable that the suCCeSS With Which Lutheranism spread in the Czech lanrls was due not only to the favourable conditions created by the existence and activities of the two domestic Reformation chulches (the Utraquists and the Unity) over the previous centuly, but also to the fact that the inhabitants 0f Bohemia and Moravia understood Gelman very well. However, identifying the bordel for the spread of Lutheranism With that of the German settlement in th Kingdom of Bohemia would mean, for the period We are studying, applying two misleadin8 modeTn appfoacheS at onCe. 4. The watersh d between the different art history periods in the CZeCh lands, as I have aheady mentioned, did not occur With the accession of the Habsburgs to the B0hemian throne in 152ó, as political, or ratber dynastic, history would have us believe. The boundary should rather be situated over the lifetime of one genelation between the 1490s and the Start of the Splead of Lutheranism. The latter can be dated from the first responses as early as 1520 (in lelation to ima8es this manif'ested itself in a revival of the so-cal]ed 'PiCaId' movement, i.e. either harking back to radical Hussitism oT emphasisin8 the quatities partiCulal to the Unity ol Brethren, and paradoxically, accolding to the teStimony oftheStaré tetopisy české[0ld czech chronicles], in the destruCtion of Utraquist images, Somethin8 not normally typical of Lutheranism),7l and from the p edominanCe of Lutheranism in ]ihlava, the first of tbe royal towns, in 1522. Both processes, the accession of the Habsburgs and the spread of Lutheranism, occurred around the same time, but it iS important Which of the two we take as marking the Change of períod, because it iS on this basis that we Wil] assess the ensuin8 Situation. In my view, a number of features of the art produced during this period can be better undelstood ifwe study them in Connection with the attempt to promote Lutheran the01o8y and religious practice. Two further tlansformation plocesses that are relevant for an evaluation of works of alt are ]ikewise dilectly connected With Lutheranism in the broad sense: the promotion of the idea ol works of art as primarily aesthetic objects, which Was mentioned earlier, and the re structuring of memory as history.72 Both contributed to a gIeater awáreneSS of the differences, the Cracks that wele opening out between 'old' and 'new', which in the Case oi images led to a consci0us reflection on the style used for th form, which started to be perceived as a speCific Statement. Later, but in the opposite djrection, the same thing is refl cted in the process of the spread ol Baroque in visual art that oCCurred in Bohemia from the mid,l7th Century. 5. The difficulty we have in undelstanding the extent to which dilfercnt types of painting and Sculp, ture are to be found in Bohemia and Molavia jn the 1óth century can be resolved to some extent When We ll lll í;" ll l LlX/2011 Llx / 2011 ii lll {" l l consider that the main representative objects to be found in the Lutheran church communities pajnted altarpieces and Ielief decorations of pulpits were deliberately removed during the period 0f lFcatholicisation, and thus Vanished withOut tlace_ This would appear to have appIied in sóme sense to Utraquist altefacts as WelI, at least to th0se whose iconography did not satisíy Catholic requilements, The funeral mem} rial Works that today constitute the Vast majority of artefacts to have been pleseryed from tbat period, in other Words epitaphs of a number of typ s and all sorts of sizes, írom simple graveston S to the Redern family monument in Fr dlant/Friedland, evidently only made up one pa t of the non-Catholic visual art produced at the time and intended for sacra] settin8s, in othel words Churches, chapels and Cemeteries. ó. The end of the Late Gothic style in the Czech lands manifested itself in sculptuIe in a marked IeduCtion in the numbel of works produced. This evidently led to a decline in sculptols'Workshops. When Wolks of sculpture are found, they are oí a simpl , Workmanlike standard, they are decorative, and frequently they are the work of foleign scu]ptors either they afe invited to Bohemia to Cleate the Work, or their artefacts are imported leady-made, The suddenness and ext nt of this change is Concealed by the ťact that it runs pala]Ie] in time with the bolder that has been constructed between diff'erent art histoly specialisations - it is easier to overlook radical Changes if We study the periods before and after them in different yo]umes oť an overall history. A t}?ical example is that of the SCu]ptures by the Monogrammist Iq Which are classified at the end of the Late Gothi0 period, While the altar in zbraslav that is attributed to Adolf Daucher opens the Chapter on Renaissance sculpture, although the two in ťact more properly belong alongside one another73 Indeed, What is known as the 'ZliChoV epitaph' by the Monogrammist IP was lecently jdentified by ]i i Fa;t as the epitaph of stephan Schlick, and thus as a ÝTrk lrom the initial stage of Luthelan iconography.7a When We look at the lóth century as a whole, however, the decline that occurs around 1530 in the quality and quantity 0l sculptules produced can pTobably best be explained by the relatively sudden and radical chan8e in the demand for religious art on the part of Lutherans. The move away ftom three{imensiona] re]igious images, Which Were too cloSe to the notiOn of idols, Was typical of this Change. This undermined the tradition of local Sculptors, and so for more clemanding commissions, now required in marble, alabaster, oI blonze - or, if jn Wood, then without the Vivid polychrome it was necessary to invite a Íbrei8n sculptor or to impoft the Work ready,made. 7. In painting, too, the end of Late Gothic manifested itself in a fairly ladical Way. Here, however, it Was trot the quantity that Was affected, but the artistic and developmental quality of the Works produced in Bohemia. paintefs continued to wolk in all the uslra] media of the pre0eding decades panel painting, book illustration, Wall painting, textile design, prints and 8lass painting. It js therefore a]l the more striking that from around the mjddle ofrhe lóth .cnlury lhPir slyle is not a continuation of the style of the high-quality wolkshops of the precedin8 period - What We reíérto Hl ToRY as the Danube school. Instead, it is a style that can be described as a simplified, rathel poor-quality deriva tive of the painting of tlre Nolthern Renaissance and Mannerism ol Western Europe. ln my opinion, We also need to consider the possibility that, for the purpose of demonstrating the visual identity of the Reformatíon confessions, it may have been considered desir able to use a painterly style derived from prints that Were impolted, mainly from Níirnberg and Augsburg, from ttle middle of the Century onwalds. Iť it WaS possible to adopt the iconography and Composition from prints without any great detriment to the resultant WOrk, and this Was loutinely done from the 147os onwards, then it is obvious that painters who leárned to paint using prints as models Would lag behind in the essential requircments of their medium. Mi8ht not this be the reason fol that strange lack of sophistication that Charactelises a substantial proportion of the paint ings that Were made in Bobemia and Moravia at that time? significantly, the situation is similar for the better preserved and mole thoroughly lesearched Works produced in silesia. But it Was not just a question 0f a lack of specific ski]]s and abilities. As Ioseph L. KOeIner has fecently shown, the 'Refbrmation of the image' Consisted among other things in the requirement that ima8es shou]d not be plimarily beautiíul and aesthetically sophisticated, The conception ol paintings Concentrated on specific techniques of Visual rhetoric, Whose aim Was to inCorporate into the painting the basic princip]eS of Lutheran teaching: sole fide, sola gratto, saLa scriptura. The preferred approach of Luthelan alt * didactic, communicatin8 a message, anrl non-aesthetic, Was dis played in leatures suCh as the clear olganiSation of the surface ol the painting, with little ambition t0 create a Convincing impression of threedimenSional depth; the relatjVe move away flom bri8ht Colours, decorative features, and dynamiC form and stlucture; the absenCe of referenCes to the Culture ol antiquity; and, above all, the dominance of text ovel image. The frequent pres ence of textS written on paintings is not only a didactic tool for manipulating the way the pictule is seen (in other words Cleatin8 the desired dispositive),/5 but also a reference to the Sole source 0f reiigious legitimacy, the Word of God; human words being its Credible fep resentation. At the same time, an inscription, like the quasi-architectulal way the sulface of the painting is dividerl up, underlínes the íact that an image is simply a two dimensional object created by human hands. 'Framing and íramed by ú\scription, the ReJblmation aLtarpíece is a scaffold for writing. Its images Stand, as it were, betlveen quotation marks- Twice removed, they picture words, und behind these what Words, when read, would pícture.'7ó These few theses cannot claim t0 be more than the first rou8h 0utline of a possible interpletative model. They also laise many questions, some 0f Which are very obvious: why are epitaphs in Bohemia preserved only lrom the 1óth Century onwards and only occa Sionally from before then? And Whe e iS the Utraquist art of the period from 15+0 to 1,ó20? We are aware of only two components of it, illuminated gladuals and hymnals, and in some areas epitaphs. once again we have to ask whethel thc fault lies w-ith us, whether ]l.ii,lii]W 1_1| j '/ EPitaPh for the son of ]an let ich oí Žerctín 1575 oil, woo+ opočno chateau I l}l (" ll l Llx / 2011 LlX/2011 ll 1-1t {, Ťl l we are looking at this issue from the Wrong point of view, or Whethef the relevant artefacts have not been preserved, or whether they simply never existed in the first place. It is likewise not unti] the present time that We have been able to appreciate the exceptional impor tance of 1óth-century Bohemian illuminated codiies in a Eutopean Context. We are no iongel Concerned bV lhe íact lhat iudged hy dbsolule