Infrastruktury (dějin) umění, Sborník ze VII. Sjezdu historiků a historiček umění v Ústí nad Labem, 2022
In the second half of the 19th century, the so-called schools of historical painting occupied th... more In the second half of the 19th century, the so-called schools of historical painting occupied the most prestigious place among the painting studios at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. This structure fundamentally influenced the subsequent development of Viennese painting. In the artistic events, it was reflected in which of the schools the artists previously studied. Three factors had a fundamental influence. First, the young artists as students were drawn into the rivalries that prevailed between the professors of different studios. Secondly, professors of figurative painting used different teaching methods and painted in different art styles, when painting methods existed side by side at the academy, which in theory should be separated from each other by several decades. Thirdly, friendly and collegial ties were created between the students on the basis of particular studios, which lasted long after graduating from the academy. All three factors strongly shaped the young artists and as a result manifested themselves at a time when they, as mature artists, were already determining what was happening on the Central European art scene.
In 1903 the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno organised
an exhibition of the art group Klub der Wien... more In 1903 the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno organised an exhibition of the art group Klub der Wiener Künstlerinnen (Acht Künstlerinnen), the first association of women artists in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After two exhibitions in the private Viennese Salon Pisko, this was the first exhibition of the club in an official institution. The article shows how its members tried to overcome the limits and restrictions of the time that prevented women artists from fully participating in the art scene, especially in opportunities to study and present their artworks in public. It analyses the impact that efforts to overcome social barriers had on the artistic style of the female artists and surveys contemporary reactions to women’s efforts to pursue professional art careers. It contrasts them with the very positive reception of Viennese women artists in Brno and points to the forgotten Brno exhibition as a milestone in the history of the emancipation of Central European women artists.
Od dějin umění k uměleckému dílu, Cesty k porozumění vizuální kultuře., 2021
The year 1882 marked a significant turning point for painting in Moravia. The Mährischer Kunstver... more The year 1882 marked a significant turning point for painting in Moravia. The Mährischer Kunstverein was founded, regular art exhibitions began to be held in Brno, and a generation of first-rate painters who had studied at Viennese art schools entered the art scene. These impulses brought dynamism to Moravian painting, raising it to a higher level of quality in a very short time. For local artists of the older generation, this often meant the devastation of their professional careers. The Brno painter Franz Adolph Feilhammer (1817–1888) may serve as an example. Feilhammer represented a romantic landscape painter whose profile was more in line with the first half of the 19th century. He looked for real motifs in nature, which he combined in his studio into a final composition, in which he modified reality to produce a more impressive artistic effect. Stylistically, he belonged to the circle of Viennese landscape artists as it had derived from Franz Steinfeld the Younger. Feilhammer’s source of inspiration came from a trip to the Alps in 1864 that he undertook with the help of a subsidy provided by the Moravian Provincial Committee (Moravský zemský výbor), for which he was the only applicant. In the Alps, he made 42 sketches, which he used as the basis for more than a hundred paintings in Brno during the following decade. With the gradual exhaustion of motifs, the quality of Feilhammer’s paintings declined, a fact of which the painter himself was aware. In 1876, he requested the committee grant him another subsidy for a trip to the Alps, which he did not receive since the number and quality of potential applicants for financial support had increased due to the emerging generation of Moravian painters studying in Vienna. In the 1880s, Feilhammer had to face the competition of painters represented at exhibitions of the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno. In addition to the higher quality of the artists, his situation was also complicated by the more modern artistic approaches of the exhibiting landscape painters. Late Romantic painters such as Eduard Peithner of Lichtenfels and representatives of atmospheric or “mood” impressionism (Stimmungsimpressionismus), including Hugo Charlemont and Robert Russ of the emerging generation of Moravian painters, appeared here. Both movements worked with plein air painting in varying degrees and tried to capture complete sections of real landscapes. Moreover, atmospheric Impressionists concentrated on natural-looking everyday landscape compositions. Feilhammer continued with his conservative conception of landscape painting, which was not intended to be merely a documentary record of the natural landscape but to give it an air of grandeur. Combining different landscape elements into one composition seemed outdated in the competition with the plein air techniques. While the atmospheric Impressionists looked for motifs in their immediate surroundings, Feilhammer needed romantically attractive motifs from the Alps, which he could derive at that time only from his old sketches. The change in the conception of landscape painting, which took place in the German lands gradually over thirty years, occurred in Moravia in a short period of time. Feilhammer was unable to respond to it. The sudden change in artistic discourse led him into existential problems, which he resolved by suicide.
The article discusses the painting Pieta by Hans Tichy, (1861–1925), a Moravian painter and one o... more The article discusses the painting Pieta by Hans Tichy, (1861–1925), a Moravian painter and one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession. In the work, dated 1888, he reacted to the rise of naturalism in contemporary sacred painting (Jules Bastien-Lepage, Jean Béraud, Fritz Uhde), which however in Central Europe combined the new naturalist elements with the traditional idealism of academic painting. Tichy was primarily influenced by the work of Munkácsy, in particular the Passion cycle Christ before Pilate – Golgotha – Ecce Homo: like Munkácsy he worked on monumentalising figures, the spatial design of the scene, appropriate positioning of minimised detail, complementary colour contrasts, and chiaroscuro effects. In terms of content, Tichy emphasised the female element and also stressed the association with the contemporary movement for women’s rights, which developed in Vienna from the 1880s onwards under the leadership of Rosa Mayreder and the painter Tina Blau-Lang. Tichy was among their supporters, nd also taught at the Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen in Vienna.
The article analyses and puts into wider context the painting by Eduard Veith Winterflucht (The F... more The article analyses and puts into wider context the painting by Eduard Veith Winterflucht (The Flight of Winter), which can be found in the collections of the Moravian Gallery in Brno. Eduard Veith was one of the graduates of the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts Kunstgewerbeschule) and, similarly to his more famous schoolmates the brothers Klimt and Franz Matsch, is a representative of the graduates of an educational institution which, under the direction of Rudolf Eitelberger, led its students to the ideas of Gesamtkunstwerk and to a more profound theoretical education. Veith is an example of an artist who created on the boundary of the declining Neo‑Baroque Makart era and of the rising symbolism. Veith belongs among the artists who chose the position of symbolism as their painting style, which, despite its promising beginnings, turned out to be less vital than other symbolist movements from the long‑term point of view of history of art. The article follows these phenomena via the painting Winterflucht and analyses this work of art on the basis of the structure of three planes of meaning: pictorial, allegoric, and symbolic.
Infrastruktury (dějin) umění, Sborník ze VII. Sjezdu historiků a historiček umění v Ústí nad Labem, 2022
In the second half of the 19th century, the so-called schools of historical painting occupied th... more In the second half of the 19th century, the so-called schools of historical painting occupied the most prestigious place among the painting studios at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. This structure fundamentally influenced the subsequent development of Viennese painting. In the artistic events, it was reflected in which of the schools the artists previously studied. Three factors had a fundamental influence. First, the young artists as students were drawn into the rivalries that prevailed between the professors of different studios. Secondly, professors of figurative painting used different teaching methods and painted in different art styles, when painting methods existed side by side at the academy, which in theory should be separated from each other by several decades. Thirdly, friendly and collegial ties were created between the students on the basis of particular studios, which lasted long after graduating from the academy. All three factors strongly shaped the young artists and as a result manifested themselves at a time when they, as mature artists, were already determining what was happening on the Central European art scene.
In 1903 the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno organised
an exhibition of the art group Klub der Wien... more In 1903 the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno organised an exhibition of the art group Klub der Wiener Künstlerinnen (Acht Künstlerinnen), the first association of women artists in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After two exhibitions in the private Viennese Salon Pisko, this was the first exhibition of the club in an official institution. The article shows how its members tried to overcome the limits and restrictions of the time that prevented women artists from fully participating in the art scene, especially in opportunities to study and present their artworks in public. It analyses the impact that efforts to overcome social barriers had on the artistic style of the female artists and surveys contemporary reactions to women’s efforts to pursue professional art careers. It contrasts them with the very positive reception of Viennese women artists in Brno and points to the forgotten Brno exhibition as a milestone in the history of the emancipation of Central European women artists.
Od dějin umění k uměleckému dílu, Cesty k porozumění vizuální kultuře., 2021
The year 1882 marked a significant turning point for painting in Moravia. The Mährischer Kunstver... more The year 1882 marked a significant turning point for painting in Moravia. The Mährischer Kunstverein was founded, regular art exhibitions began to be held in Brno, and a generation of first-rate painters who had studied at Viennese art schools entered the art scene. These impulses brought dynamism to Moravian painting, raising it to a higher level of quality in a very short time. For local artists of the older generation, this often meant the devastation of their professional careers. The Brno painter Franz Adolph Feilhammer (1817–1888) may serve as an example. Feilhammer represented a romantic landscape painter whose profile was more in line with the first half of the 19th century. He looked for real motifs in nature, which he combined in his studio into a final composition, in which he modified reality to produce a more impressive artistic effect. Stylistically, he belonged to the circle of Viennese landscape artists as it had derived from Franz Steinfeld the Younger. Feilhammer’s source of inspiration came from a trip to the Alps in 1864 that he undertook with the help of a subsidy provided by the Moravian Provincial Committee (Moravský zemský výbor), for which he was the only applicant. In the Alps, he made 42 sketches, which he used as the basis for more than a hundred paintings in Brno during the following decade. With the gradual exhaustion of motifs, the quality of Feilhammer’s paintings declined, a fact of which the painter himself was aware. In 1876, he requested the committee grant him another subsidy for a trip to the Alps, which he did not receive since the number and quality of potential applicants for financial support had increased due to the emerging generation of Moravian painters studying in Vienna. In the 1880s, Feilhammer had to face the competition of painters represented at exhibitions of the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno. In addition to the higher quality of the artists, his situation was also complicated by the more modern artistic approaches of the exhibiting landscape painters. Late Romantic painters such as Eduard Peithner of Lichtenfels and representatives of atmospheric or “mood” impressionism (Stimmungsimpressionismus), including Hugo Charlemont and Robert Russ of the emerging generation of Moravian painters, appeared here. Both movements worked with plein air painting in varying degrees and tried to capture complete sections of real landscapes. Moreover, atmospheric Impressionists concentrated on natural-looking everyday landscape compositions. Feilhammer continued with his conservative conception of landscape painting, which was not intended to be merely a documentary record of the natural landscape but to give it an air of grandeur. Combining different landscape elements into one composition seemed outdated in the competition with the plein air techniques. While the atmospheric Impressionists looked for motifs in their immediate surroundings, Feilhammer needed romantically attractive motifs from the Alps, which he could derive at that time only from his old sketches. The change in the conception of landscape painting, which took place in the German lands gradually over thirty years, occurred in Moravia in a short period of time. Feilhammer was unable to respond to it. The sudden change in artistic discourse led him into existential problems, which he resolved by suicide.
The article discusses the painting Pieta by Hans Tichy, (1861–1925), a Moravian painter and one o... more The article discusses the painting Pieta by Hans Tichy, (1861–1925), a Moravian painter and one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession. In the work, dated 1888, he reacted to the rise of naturalism in contemporary sacred painting (Jules Bastien-Lepage, Jean Béraud, Fritz Uhde), which however in Central Europe combined the new naturalist elements with the traditional idealism of academic painting. Tichy was primarily influenced by the work of Munkácsy, in particular the Passion cycle Christ before Pilate – Golgotha – Ecce Homo: like Munkácsy he worked on monumentalising figures, the spatial design of the scene, appropriate positioning of minimised detail, complementary colour contrasts, and chiaroscuro effects. In terms of content, Tichy emphasised the female element and also stressed the association with the contemporary movement for women’s rights, which developed in Vienna from the 1880s onwards under the leadership of Rosa Mayreder and the painter Tina Blau-Lang. Tichy was among their supporters, nd also taught at the Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen in Vienna.
The article analyses and puts into wider context the painting by Eduard Veith Winterflucht (The F... more The article analyses and puts into wider context the painting by Eduard Veith Winterflucht (The Flight of Winter), which can be found in the collections of the Moravian Gallery in Brno. Eduard Veith was one of the graduates of the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts Kunstgewerbeschule) and, similarly to his more famous schoolmates the brothers Klimt and Franz Matsch, is a representative of the graduates of an educational institution which, under the direction of Rudolf Eitelberger, led its students to the ideas of Gesamtkunstwerk and to a more profound theoretical education. Veith is an example of an artist who created on the boundary of the declining Neo‑Baroque Makart era and of the rising symbolism. Veith belongs among the artists who chose the position of symbolism as their painting style, which, despite its promising beginnings, turned out to be less vital than other symbolist movements from the long‑term point of view of history of art. The article follows these phenomena via the painting Winterflucht and analyses this work of art on the basis of the structure of three planes of meaning: pictorial, allegoric, and symbolic.
Uploads
Papers by Robert Janás
an exhibition of the art group Klub der Wiener Künstlerinnen
(Acht Künstlerinnen), the first association of women artists
in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After two
exhibitions in the private Viennese Salon Pisko, this was the first
exhibition of the club in an official institution. The article shows
how its members tried to overcome the limits and restrictions of
the time that prevented women artists from fully participating
in the art scene, especially in opportunities to study and present
their artworks in public. It analyses the impact that efforts to
overcome social barriers had on the artistic style of the female
artists and surveys contemporary reactions to women’s efforts
to pursue professional art careers. It contrasts them with the
very positive reception of Viennese women artists in Brno and
points to the forgotten Brno exhibition as a milestone in the
history of the emancipation of Central European women artists.
he modified reality to produce a more impressive artistic effect. Stylistically, he belonged to the circle of Viennese landscape artists as it had derived from Franz Steinfeld the Younger. Feilhammer’s source of inspiration came from a trip to the Alps in 1864 that he undertook with the help of a subsidy provided by the Moravian Provincial Committee (Moravský zemský výbor), for which he was the only applicant. In the Alps, he made 42 sketches, which he used as the basis for more than a hundred paintings in Brno during the following decade. With the gradual exhaustion of motifs, the quality of Feilhammer’s paintings declined, a fact of which the painter himself was aware. In 1876, he requested the committee grant him another subsidy for a trip to the Alps, which he did not receive since the number and quality of potential applicants for financial support had increased due to the emerging generation of Moravian painters studying in Vienna. In the 1880s, Feilhammer had to face the competition of painters represented at exhibitions of the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno. In
addition to the higher quality of the artists, his situation was also complicated by the more modern artistic approaches of the exhibiting landscape painters. Late Romantic painters such as Eduard Peithner of Lichtenfels and representatives of atmospheric or “mood” impressionism (Stimmungsimpressionismus), including Hugo Charlemont and Robert Russ of the emerging generation of Moravian painters, appeared here. Both movements worked with plein air painting in varying degrees and tried to capture complete sections of real landscapes. Moreover, atmospheric Impressionists concentrated on natural-looking everyday
landscape compositions. Feilhammer continued with his conservative conception of landscape painting, which was not intended to be merely a documentary record of the natural landscape but to give it an air of grandeur. Combining different landscape elements into one composition seemed outdated in the competition with the plein air techniques. While the atmospheric Impressionists looked for motifs in their immediate surroundings, Feilhammer needed romantically attractive motifs from the Alps, which he could derive at that time only from his old sketches. The change in the conception of landscape painting, which took place in the German lands gradually over thirty years, occurred in Moravia in a short period of time. Feilhammer was unable to respond to it. The sudden change in artistic discourse led him into existential problems, which he
resolved by suicide.
an exhibition of the art group Klub der Wiener Künstlerinnen
(Acht Künstlerinnen), the first association of women artists
in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After two
exhibitions in the private Viennese Salon Pisko, this was the first
exhibition of the club in an official institution. The article shows
how its members tried to overcome the limits and restrictions of
the time that prevented women artists from fully participating
in the art scene, especially in opportunities to study and present
their artworks in public. It analyses the impact that efforts to
overcome social barriers had on the artistic style of the female
artists and surveys contemporary reactions to women’s efforts
to pursue professional art careers. It contrasts them with the
very positive reception of Viennese women artists in Brno and
points to the forgotten Brno exhibition as a milestone in the
history of the emancipation of Central European women artists.
he modified reality to produce a more impressive artistic effect. Stylistically, he belonged to the circle of Viennese landscape artists as it had derived from Franz Steinfeld the Younger. Feilhammer’s source of inspiration came from a trip to the Alps in 1864 that he undertook with the help of a subsidy provided by the Moravian Provincial Committee (Moravský zemský výbor), for which he was the only applicant. In the Alps, he made 42 sketches, which he used as the basis for more than a hundred paintings in Brno during the following decade. With the gradual exhaustion of motifs, the quality of Feilhammer’s paintings declined, a fact of which the painter himself was aware. In 1876, he requested the committee grant him another subsidy for a trip to the Alps, which he did not receive since the number and quality of potential applicants for financial support had increased due to the emerging generation of Moravian painters studying in Vienna. In the 1880s, Feilhammer had to face the competition of painters represented at exhibitions of the Mährischer Kunstverein in Brno. In
addition to the higher quality of the artists, his situation was also complicated by the more modern artistic approaches of the exhibiting landscape painters. Late Romantic painters such as Eduard Peithner of Lichtenfels and representatives of atmospheric or “mood” impressionism (Stimmungsimpressionismus), including Hugo Charlemont and Robert Russ of the emerging generation of Moravian painters, appeared here. Both movements worked with plein air painting in varying degrees and tried to capture complete sections of real landscapes. Moreover, atmospheric Impressionists concentrated on natural-looking everyday
landscape compositions. Feilhammer continued with his conservative conception of landscape painting, which was not intended to be merely a documentary record of the natural landscape but to give it an air of grandeur. Combining different landscape elements into one composition seemed outdated in the competition with the plein air techniques. While the atmospheric Impressionists looked for motifs in their immediate surroundings, Feilhammer needed romantically attractive motifs from the Alps, which he could derive at that time only from his old sketches. The change in the conception of landscape painting, which took place in the German lands gradually over thirty years, occurred in Moravia in a short period of time. Feilhammer was unable to respond to it. The sudden change in artistic discourse led him into existential problems, which he
resolved by suicide.