Related Papers
The Question of the Krumlov Miscellanea: The Chalice as Utraquist Symbol
Daniela Rywiková
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.
Modestia est signum Sapientiae Studie nejen o středověkém umění k poctě Dalibora Prixe
The Body in Motion and the Wandering Mind. The Visual Arts in the Service of Late Medieval Virtual Pilgrims
2021 •
Daniela Rywiková
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.
Medieval and Early Modern Art in Central Europe
ART AND DEVOTION IN THE FEMALE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES OF LATE MEDIEVAL ČESKÝ KRUMLOV
2019 •
Daniela Rywiková
The Rosenberg Family founded in Český Krumlov (South Bohemia) a triple monastic complex. The double monastery of sacrosante dei genitricis perpetueque virginis Mariae was founded in 1350 right below the family castle and across the Vltava River from the town centre. The monastic church was completed in about 1358, and the community of nuns entered the new monastery in 1361, arriving from the Poor Clare nunnery in Opava, Silesia. The quasi-monastic female community was founded “by the walls of the Franciscan monastery” in 1375 by Anne of Rosenberg and, as is obvious from the architectural plan of the monastery, the existence of a third religious community was planned by the Rosenberg founders from the very beginning representing in the Central Europe an unique architectonic and spiritual complex also reflected by its artistic decoration.
Christ in Motion: Portable Objects and Scenographic Environments in the Liturgy of Medieval Bohemia
Petr Uličný
This article concerns itself with the study of the dramatic elements in the mediaeval liturgy in Bohemia and the use of mobile statues of Christ or the symbols of Christ (the host, the cross). It focuses on those feasts in the liturgical calendar that were dramatized: leading the ass on Palm Sunday, depositing the host, the cross, or the body of Christ into the Holy Sepulchre on Good Friday and their retrieval before the play of Visit to the Sepulchre on Easter Monday, and finally raising the statue of Christ on Ascension Day. The rubrics of St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle indicate that on Palm Sunday a live ass used to be led here, and from the 14th century this practice was replaced by a statue of Christ on an Ass, which in 1421 was toppled from the cathedral gallery by revolting Prague citizens. One such statue that has survived to date comes from the commandry of the Order of the Knights of St John in Strakonice. A statue in České Budějovice dating from around 1370 represents the corpora placed in the Sepulchre. Written records attest to the use of such statues in the Monastery of St Thomas in Malá Strana in Prague and in two churches in Olomouc. Also from the Olomouc region are two statues of Christ that have movable arms. The earliest of these statues, which could be removed from the cross and placed in the Easter Sepulchre, is from the Church of St Benedict in Hradčany in Prague and dates from around 1350. A pieta from Lásenice has a detachable Jesus figure with a movable arm. The only portable Holy Sepulchre documented in Bohemia was in the Church of St Barbora in Kutná Hora, it dated from 1464 and was equipped with wheels for portability. The Bohemian example may have been the inspiration for the Czech-born sculptor who carved the entirely transparent Sepulchre for the Busmannkapelle of the Franciscan monastery in Dresden, which was evidently based on the wooden, portable model. The raising of statues on Resurrection Day is illustrated by one such event in Prague in 1509 in the Church of St Thomas in Malá Strana.
(Trans)missions: Monasteries as Sites of Cultural Transfers
Sola Superbia Destruit Omnia: The Female Monster in Liber Depictus as a Polysemantic Image of the Spiritual Malformation and the Fallen World
2022 •
Daniela Rywiková
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.
Czech Franciscan Book Culture : Libraries of Conventuals, Franciscans and Capuchins through centuries
Matyáš Franciszek Bajger
English Abstract and TOC of the disseration "Ceska frantiskanska knizni kultura". Some chapters translated to English are going to be added here.
Art in an Unsettled Time. Bohemian Book Illumination before Gutenberg (c. 1375 –1450)
The Bohemian Illustrated Life of Christ. Artistic provenance, iconography and commission of Cod. 485 (Vienna, Austrian National Library)
2018 •
Kateřina Horníčková
Sacred Sites and Holy Places: Exploring the Sacralisation of Landscape through Time and Space,
The Sacred Topography of Medieval Prague
2011 •
Zoe Opacic
The Krumlov Liber Depictus. On its Creation and Depiction of Jews / Krumlovský kodex Liber Depictus. K jeho vzniku a zobrazení Židů (in English)
Daniel Soukup, Lukáš Reitinger
Lukáš Reitinger: Searching for the first reader, pp. 5-16; Daniel Soukup: Jewish Themes in the Liber depictus: A Comparative Analysis (Jewish Figures in the Liber depictus in the Light of the Clothing Customs in Medieval Ashkenaz - The Jewish Hat - Hairstyles and Head Coverings of Jewish Women - The Liber depictus and the Regulation of Jewish Clothing Elements - Jews in the Liber depictus and Their Spiritual Message - Ecclesia et Synagoga: Fiction and Reality in the Liber depictus), pp. 17-44
Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe Nada Zečević (ed.), Daniel Ziemann (ed.)
Art and Architecture in Medieval East Central Europe - The Late Middle Ages
2022 •
Zoe Opacic
