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What is authentic? Dialogue with the historical interior

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2022

Abstract

The study focuses on the authenticity of the historical interior. It opens the debate as to whether authenticity is hidden only in the urgent effort to preserve and rehabilitate as many original building and art artifacts of the exteriors and interiors of historical residences as possible, i.e. plaster, floors, frescoes or stucco, etc., in their original form. He also asks the question whether furniture, which is an indispensable part of historical interiors and speaks of its socio-cultural essence as significantly as building or artistic elements, speaks of authenticity.

The author aspires to answer the questions, why strive for the authenticity of the interiors of historical residences at all. What can be achieved by this? And how do the preserved artefacts speak to their viewers, visitors and users? What effect does authenticity have on the experience of a visitor or guest in an authentic historical environment?

The author tries to unravel these questions using the example of the social hall of the Kynžvart castle, into the skeleton of which a few years ago it was possible to insert a unique golden table decoration by the French carver and metalsmith Pierre-Philippe Thomir.