Tradition and Innovation in the Bohemian Beautiful style and the Sacred Space

We cordially invite you to the lecture and discussion from the cycle The Moving Middle Ages / Dialogues, which will be given by Monika Jakubek-Raczkowska (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń), Michaela Ottová (Charles University, Prague) and Petr Jindra (The Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen).

The lecture will take place on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at 4.30 pm in the Institute of Art History CAS, room 117, Husova 4, Prague 1.

In the historical territory of Prussia, many sculptures have survived, carved from Prague marlstone at the end of the 14th century. Their primary functions are still a subject of discussion and hypotheses. In their original birthplace, these artistic creations responded to new demands of ecclesiology, Eucharist worship and the cult of the Virgin Mary. Thanks to the potential of psychological interaction, they could be classified as imagines devotionis per se. Although in Bohemia the statues rather hold the traditional role of cult images, once placed in Prussian sacral interiors, they entered new spatial contexts. Their functions could change even to contradict the original author’s intent. The lecture will analyze these functions based on examples preserved in the St Johns’s Church in Toruń.

The co-lecture will present questions concerning the function and meaning structure of Bohemian beautiful style Madonnas, their original location, liturgical context and commissioners. The speakers will focus on various aspects of the emergence of the type (pictorial form) of the beautiful Madonna in the Prague artistic environment, using the example of the Pilsen Madonna and the Madonna from Třeboň, both originating probably from the 1380s.