The research team of the Early Modern Art Department conducts studies on Renaissance and Baroque visual arts and architecture in the Czech lands within a broader Central European context. Individual department members develop and apply their expertise in their own research topics while also contributing to collective tasks that are important for the department’s overall profile. The research into Prague court art and visual culture around 1600 has a long tradition, organized and methodologically supported by the internationally recognized Studia Rudolphina: Research Centre for Visual Arts and Culture in the Age of Rudolf II. Its members participate in international exhibitions and publication projects and the centre also publishes an eponymous bulletin (indexed in the SCOPUS and EBSCO databases). The department also houses the The Center for Baroque Ceiling Painting in Central Europe (BCPCE) which focuses on the documentation and interpretation of wall paintings in close cooperation with international experts. Over the course of its existence, it has carried out many projects including research into the Tencalla family of fresco painters in Central Europe and Baroque wall painting in Benedictine monasteries in the Czech lands.
The latter projects were concluded with extensive monographs Tencalla (2012–2013) and Benediktini [The Benedictines] (2016). In cooperation with the Institute for Art and Music Historical Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a collection of essays titled Pfarrkirchen: Catholic and Lutheran Sacred Spaces and their Baroque Decoration was published in 2021. Other significant outputs in recent years include the monographs Slavatovský palác: Projekty hraběte Jana Jáchyma Slavaty z let 1673–1689 [The Slavata Palace. Projects of Count Johann Joachim Slavata from 1673–1689] (2022) and Ve stínu Karla Škréty: Pražští malíři v letech 1635–1680 [In the Shadow of Karel Škréta: Prague Painters from 1635 to 1680] (2017). Renaissance research is represented by exhibition catalogues on Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol (2017), the monograph Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria: A Second-Born Son in Renaissance Europe (2021), and the recent publication The Alchemical Laboratory in Visual and Written Sources (2023).
Currently, department members are working on two projects superoted by the Czech Sience Foundation: Baroque ceiling painting between theory and praxis (lead by Martin Mádl) and Art for Display: The Painting collection of Emperor Rudolf II within the context of collecting practices circa 1600 (lead by Štěpán Vácha). They are also involved in various smaller projects within the framework of the Strategy AV21, such as the 2023 international conference Diplomats at the Court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague (in collaboration with the Institute of History, CAS), and teach at universities (Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague, Academy of Fine Arts in Prague).
