Syllabus
1. 15th CENTURY FULL OF OVERWIEVS AND TURNS The 15th century is quite extraordinary In the perspective of breakthroughs, discoveries, inventions, geniuses, changes and shifts in society. In this last century of the Middle Ages (or the first of the Modern Age?) Gutenberg began printing books, Villon composed his "cursed" ballads, the Portuguese and the Spanish sailors set out to discover the world, the Hussites tried to reform the church, the Italians and the Dutch laid the foundations for modern capitalism, and mainly brought a whole new status of art (l'art pour l'art) and artist and art theory.
2. GAUDIUM ET VOLUPTAS CONTRA ECCLESIA MILITANS The joy and enjoyment of art and earthly life on the one hand and art in the banner of the fighting church on the other. The Muses at the time of humanism, renaissance and of the time of protestant iconoclasm and religious wars as well as at the time of religious conciliation in Bohemia: the Renaissance in 16th century Europe.
3. ECCLESIA TRIUMPHANS. The winning church: Baroque art and Catholic Counter-reformation on the one hand, and the art of non-Catholic areas on the other, where genre and portrait painting or still lifes came to a head.
4. THE BAROQUE LANDSCAPE The count Špork´s mecenate; J. B. Santini-Aichel, father and son Dientzenhofers, P. Brandl, M. B. Braun and F. M. Brokoff – geniuses shaping the genius loci of towns, villages and landscapes of 18th century in Bohemia and Moravia.
5. ON THE TRACK OF THE INDUSTRIAL AGE The 19th (similary to the 15th century) brought about a series of transformations that were reflected in society – and in art too. In the course of the long age of the Industrial Revolution, an unprecedented number of artistic opinions, styles and directions were replaced at the unprecedented speed of the steam locomotive – - from Classicism and Empire Style of the Napoleon´s era to the Romanticism and the Bourgeois Biedermeier period and Academic Realism to Impressionism, Symbolism and Modern Art and Abstract Art. And from the beginnings of photography to its significance and consolidation in art and documentary.
6. QUO VADIS, ARS? The final lecture of the shifting artistic styles of modern times can be understood as the transition from the steam locomotive to the racing car of the early 20th century. By it we will launch on an adventurous ride through an abstract-surrealistic landscape, afterwards plundered by the greatest war conflict in human history; on an elusively rapid shuttle flight around an entire affluent and impoverished world with an impoverished destination. Contemporary art as a "limited edition" or as an eternally open gateway? What exactly is modern art? How about postmodern? (this lecture can also be conceived as an excursion in the collection of modern art in the National Gallery in the Veletržní Palace (Fair Palace).
Annotation
The course Art History II follows the subject Art History I with an overview of the history of art in Europe and the Czech lands (in the spring semester: from the end of the Middle Ages to the modern age). Together we will take a look at how Gothic and Baroque Styles have transformed the landscape in Bohemia and Moravia; how opinion of art is changing depending on time, place, society, regime and personal attitude.
We will also try to identify and distinguish kitsch from quality work. (note: if the epidemiological conditions are appropriate, some lecture would be realize as an excursion)