Exploring the historical foundations of Russian imperialism, the book delves into the portrayal of Byzantium as a crucial source of imperial legitimacy in Russian history. It highlights the influence of the powerful medieval Christian empire on Russia's self-identity and imperial narrative, illustrating the complex relationship between these two empires throughout history.
Přítomnost obrazů. Rozhovor Ivana Folettiho s Hansem Beltingem Obsah této knihy, která představuje dlouhodobý neformální rozhovor, zahrnuje období od jara 2017 do začátku ledna 2023. Byl to rozhovor mezi přáteli, protahovaný telefonáty a návštěvami doma, ale s onou jiskrou elektrizujícího vzrušení živeného společnými zájmy a touhami. Hans Belting, jeden z největších historiků umění vůbec, zde vypráví svou intelektuální parabolu. Při putování z poválečného Německa do Spojených států na konci padesátých let, do Evropy druhé poloviny dvacátého století a na začátek nového tisíciletí čtenáři pomalu odhalí společné nitky jeho životního příběhu: mihotavou funkci obrazů mezi tělem a objektem, otevřenost ke spolupráci a interdisciplinaritě a samozřejmě fascinaci dějinami obrazů od středověku až po současnost.
The notion of "Byzantium" has for centuries been associated with autocracy, totalitarianism, and suppression of freedom. It thus became the favored model for the Russian autocracy. In the nineteenth-century, Russian scholars working under Tsarist regimes were, either explicitly or tacitly, condoning and even supporting the ruling autocracy. After the Revolution of 1917, however, many of these effectively complicit intellectuals left Russia for Western democracies. This book shows how this experience affected the lives of intellectuals who fled and transformed their scholarship. Archival materials and writings from the time reveal how scholarship can move from aspiration to reality, as it did for the Russian emigres until the crash of 1929 and the rise of Nazism in Germany. But how is this relevant today? Because it shows how scholarship and science must be understood as part of history, and because it illustrates the power of hope. As studied and presented by emigres from Tsarist totalitarianism, "Byzantium" came to be a multinational screen onto which scholars projected not only frustrations but also dreams.
Between Slavs, Germans, and Totalitarian Regimes * Je možné „vytvořit“ minulost? Autoři knihy v souboru studií zkoumají, jak „vytváření“ minulosti probíhalo v Československu v období od konce první světové války do šedesátých let 20. století. Články se zaměřují především na vytváření „národního“ středověku, ke kterému docházelo na pozadí setkávání různých jazykových a etnických skupin (Čechů, Slováků, Němců a Rusů), kdy ve stále roztříštěnější politické situaci země jedna skupina často popírala, přetvářela či ignorovala názory ostatních.
Is it possible to "invent" the past? Through a series of studies, this volume explores the history of how this process occurred in Czechoslovakia within the period from about the end of the First World War until the 1960s. It focuses specifically on the re-invention of the "national" Middle Ages at the background of the meeting of different linguistic and ethnic groups - Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, and Russians - where one group would often negate, reshape, and ignore the point of view of the other, within an increasingly fractured political geography of the country. The presented case studies show how research on medieval artworks and objects could become a fertile ground for the creation of ideological tools and narratives. In this way, understanding the historiography of art history also contributes to redefining Central Europe as a place of transcultural encounters and dialogues, beyond historical ruptures.
Is it possible to reconstruct the feeling of a medieval pilgrim walking towards the sacred? No, it is not. And yet, the experimental project Migrating Art Historians sought to delve into this impossibility. Journeying by foot over more than 1500km, twelve modern pilgrims - students and scholars from Masaryk University - reached some of the most impressive artistic monuments of medieval France. One year later, this book presents their intellectual, human, and art historical theoretical know-how, transformed by the experience of their bodies. In this context, exhausted and activated bodies became instruments asking new questions to medieval artworks and sources. Structured as a walk along pilgrimage routes, this book presents firstly the landscape, followed by liminal zones, before leading the reader inside medieval churches and ultimately towards the sacred. Original scientific art historical research combines with personal engagement. What emerges is the subject confronted with the experience of medieval art.
