Journal ARS 46 (2013) 2

Katarína CHMELINOVÁ

Úvod

When I was approached by the chief editor of Ars in the spring of 2013 with the offer of editing a foreign-language issue of this important scientific journal, it was not difficult for me to choose a theme. The overarching theme of the issue was and in the end is the early modern culture and art of religious orders in Central Europe. It corresponded with my professional interest as well as unfinished research of the past few years into sacred art of the early modern age, with an emphasis on monastic culture. Although I was aware of the unlikelihood of me writing a contribution because of other commitments, such as preparing a monograph on Franciscan art and on Fra Konrád Švestka, I gratefully accepted this opportunity. I have used it to develop the Central European dialogue pertaining to this many-layered and, in the past twenty years, intensively researched topic, a part of which is embodied in the papers published here. Sacral realisations, particularly those linked to the functioning of various monastic communities had, after the Council of Trident (1545 – 1563), an irreplaceable role in the production of works of art. Additionally, members of monastic communities were active whether as patrons, consumers or directly as artists. Monastic life was shaped around the communal principle which, albeit in its own world and with its own rules, interacted with the surrounding environment in an often very lively way during the early modern era. The variety of artistic forms in monastic buildings is still very much in evidence today, while they fulfilled different functions. This allows the art historian to range over a wide field with the opportunity to apply both autonomous as well as heteronymous scholarly approaches.

A natural starting point towards the goal of a thematically unified issue of Ars was approaching colleagues from the relevant art history institutes and departments at universities in Hungary, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic and suggesting collaboration. Apart from the relatively wide subject with the chronological delimitation of the early modern era, there were no further fetters placed on the contributors from a methodological or thematic point of view. It has become apparent that in Hungary scholarly research is developing in a separate direction. Although colleagues from Hungary considered the offer for some time, in the end they have been unable to contribute due to differing thematic interests as well as the pressures of work and time. The situation in the Czech Republic was only partly comparable. Currently their research into monastic art is connected mostly with the study of wall painting as part of their active participation in the international taskforce founded in 2006 in Vienna, entitled “Baroque Ceiling Painting in Central Europe”. Most recently it conferred in Bratislava (Concept – Image – Reception. Baroque Ceiling Paintings in the Setting of European Monasteries, 19. - 21. 9. 2013, Institute of Art History Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava; Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague; Art History Seminary, Masaryk University, Brno). Understandably they are reluctant to share their findings from this as well as their other meetings, and they plan to publish a comprehensive volume. Nevertheless this group is represented in our issue in the person of W. Telesko who, together with M. Haltrich, prepared a text containing new findings about the Zwettl monastery library decorated by Paul Troger. The suggested topic found a significant response in Poland, where, apart from other events, a conference on post-Tridentine art took place between May and June 2012 (Sztuka po Trydencie, 31. 5. – 1. 6. 2013, Institute of History of Art and Culture, The Pontifical University of John Paul II, Cracow). The broad spectrum of the contributions by Polish colleagues touches on many facets of monastic culture and research methods, including a fertile analysis of early-Christian revivalism in art (P. Krasny), a theory of the Calvary as an extension of monastic territory (T. J. Żuchowski), an inspirational approach to the interpretation of and Italian models for a part of a portrait gallery of bishops (K. J. Czyżewski – M. Walczak), a pair of revealing iconographic studies which additionally point to the identical application of monastic iconography in various environments with the aim of furthering their interests in secular spheres (A. Kozieł, A. Wojtyła), and a traditional, particularly stylistic profile of an artist in the services of an order who came from a Central European artistic family which was also active in Slovakia (P. Kluz).

The preparation of this issue of Ars gave us the opportunity to publish a new text, markedly Central European, by Prof. M. Pötzl-Malíková about Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. The study came to being as part of the author’s work on another monograph of the sculptor for the Österreichische Galerie Belveder Wien. Even though chronologically this subject falls into the latter stages of the early modern era, it has very little to do with monastic culture. On the other hand, this exceptionally accomplished study, significantly rooted in cultural anthropology, explodes the myth of Messerschmidt, corrects traditional errors and offers information on newly discovered works by the master. As a result, the original intention of a monothematic issue was modified and before summer 2013 a standalone, second part of the journal was created which is dedicated to F. X. Messerschmidt. It also contains a precise historical study by Anna Schirlbauer about Franz Strunz, the first exhibitor of Messerschmidt’s character heads in Vienna. Apart from interesting hypotheses it also introduces some heretofore unknown discoveries. In contrast to the first part of the issue both these texts prove how much more there is still to surprise us with this subject.

Apart from studies, a natural component of this type of journal is an analysis of scholarly activity in the form of reviews. This time, one exhibition is reviewed – Baroque since 1630 in the Österreichische Galerie Belveder Wien (M. E. Yonan). It is accompanied by an earlier review given to the editorial board discussing an Austrian publication about one of the key figures of Central European Baroque – the Jesuit artist Andrea Pozzo (I. Štibraná). Finally, the issue is completed with a comprehensive obituary of a significant figure of Slovak art theory, Tomáš Štrauss, who left us in May this year (Z. Bartošová).

My sincere thanks go to all contributors who kindly accepted my invitation to participate on this issue of Ars. I would like to express my gratitude to the editorial board of Ars, mainly to its editor-in-chief, Prof. Ján Bakoš, for the rare opportunity to edit an issue of the journal on the topic of my choice.

English translation by M. Pomichal