DU1754 Art, landscape and environment (9th–20th century)

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2026
Extent and Intensity
0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Jan Galeta, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Martin Lešák, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Radka Nokkala Miltová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
prof. PhDr. Alena Pomajzlová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Tomáš Valeš, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Supplier department: Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites
Classes will be held every 14 days, i.e. 19.02; 05.03; 19.03; 02.04; 16.04; 30.04; 14.05
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
1) To introduce students to the relationship between art and ecology; 2) To reflect on new ecocritical trends in the history of the humanities; 3) Use a series of case studies to show possible ways of studying art history from this perspective. Classes will be held every 14 days, i.e. 19.02; 05.03; 19.03; 02.04; 16.04; 30.04; 14.05
Learning outcomes
The student will be able to:
- be oriented in ecocritical theory
- be familiar with specific case studies that address a given issue across time and space
- understand the significance of the longue durée approach for art history.
- apply similar methodological approaches across different historical examples.
Syllabus
  • - Introduction
  • - Sacred Landscape, Symbiosis of Nature and Culture in the Early Middle Ages
  • - Silver mining, art and landscape at the end of the Middle Ages
  • - The love of coral in the early modern period and the threat to the marine ecosystem
  • - The Baroque landscape or how man "conquered" nature
  • - The coal landscape: coal mining and the fatal anthropisation of the landscape
  • Land Art and Ecocritical Art in the 20th Century
Literature
  • Jeannette Graulau, The Underground Wealth of Nations. On the Capitalist Origins of Silver Mining, A.D. 1150–1450, New Haven and London 2019
  • Lucy Donkin, Looking Beneath the Surface: Subterranean Space in the Kutná Hora Cantional, in: Laura Cleaver, Alixe Bovey, and Lucy Donkin eds., Illuminating the Middle Ages, Leiden and Boston 2020, pp. 414–434
  • Eva Chodějovská (ed.), Krajina v rukou barokního člověka. Lidé a krajina 16. – 18. století na východě Čech, Josefov 2020. Pavel Preiss, František Antonín Špork a barokní kultura v Čechách, Praha 2003.
  • Petr Hrubý, Silver Mining in the Kingdom of Bohemia (13th–14th Centuries), Leiden 2024
  • FOLETTI, Ivan and Martin LEŠÁK. Du désert au Paradis : Conques et son environnement prémoderne (From desert to paradise : Conques and its premodern environment). Les cahiers de saint-michel de Cuxa. 2024, vol. 55, No 1, p. 97-104. ISSN 2804-0775. URL info
Teaching methods
lectures, class discussion
Assessment methods
Final essay
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2026, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2026/DU1754