The aim of the thesis is to evaluace the altars with the central theme of Our Lady of Italian prohnance of the 14th and 15th centuries from the collection of Tommaso degli Obizzi, today in the National Gallery in Prague. The introduction will be assessed for czech and foreign literature on the topic. Then will be recalled the circumstances of the origin of this collection and the way how these works came from Konopiště chateau to the National Gallery in Prague. Next part of the thesis will be focused on five altarsplates, which will be interpreted by formal. Thes e works will be processed accordingly katalog system. Finally, work will evaluace those works and thein importance in the kontext of collecting in a wider context.

The submitted dissertation's main object is an in-depth study of the portals created by the lodge of Benedikt Ried at Prague Castle and a group of portals that reflected the lodge's stimuli in Bohemian towns in the first half of the 16th century. The first all'antica portals in Moravia and Italianate works in Prague towns were also researched with the aim to analyse and better understand the contact of local "Gothic" tradition and incoming Italianate forms ca. 1500 in the area of interest on a wider theoretical background. The thesis consists of two parts. First, the key theoretical concepts of how to interpret the contact of the "Gothic" with the "Renaissance" relevant to the object of empirical study are introduced. As recent theoretical thought showed, the tendency to revise the interpretation of formal syncretism and pluralism in European architecture ca. 1500 stemmed, among others, from the need to correct several patterns common in former research methods, i.e. the presumption of stylistic unity, the effort to identify one principle through the "classical stylistic phase" supposed to be common to all artworks of a given time period, and the simultaneous use of the term "Renaissance" for both a set of stylistic features and a historical era connected with the idea of progress. All these were...

La naissance des collections de gravures constitue un phénomène mystérieux, qui ne peut être ni daté, ni localisé avec une précision absolue. Les premières manifestations remontent au milieu du XVe siècle, à une époque où les estampes sont collectées dans le but d’être collées dans des textes manuscrits ou imprimés. À partir des années 1470-1480, ces pratiques archaïques sont relayées progressivement par une approche proprement moderne des collections de gravures, qui se diffusent alors dans toute l’Europe, jusqu’à être largement répandues dans certaines couches de la société au moment où l’on bascule dans l’âge baroque. Plusieurs types d’ensembles coexistent à cette époque. Les collections d’amateurs tels que Fernand Colomb, Willibald Imhoff ou Abraham Ortelius témoignent d’une affinité particulière pour l’art de l’estampe et mettent en place les premiers outils pour sélectionner, conserver et classer les gravures. De nombreux princes, tels que Ferdinand de Tyrol et Philippe II d’Espagne, s’intéressent également à ces œuvres, auxquelles ils consacrent une section dans leurs collections encyclopédiques ou leurs bibliothèques. D’autres collections, à but utilitaire, émergent également à cette période. On trouve ainsi des fonds d’estampes dans de nombreux ateliers d’artistes et d’artisans, où elles sont employées pour former les apprentis et servir de modèles ou de supports à la création. Les érudits s’emparent également des gravures et constituent des fonds documentaires spécialisés en histoire, géographie et sciences naturelles. Cette grande diversité dans les pratiques est une des caractéristiques essentielles des premières collections d’estampes. / The origins of print collecting are ill documented and cannot be dated nor located with certainty. The early signs can be traced back to ca. 1450, when prints were collected to be pasted in manuscripts and printed books. From the 1470s-1480s onwards, these archaic practices tended to be replaced by modern collecting. It then spread throughout Europe and became a common practice at the dawn of the Baroque era. There are several types of print collectors at that time. Enthusiasts and connoisseurs such as Ferdinand Columbus, Willibald Imhoff and Abraham Ortelius created special methods for selecting, storing and classifying high quality engravings and woodcuts. Ferdinand of Tyrol, Philip II of Spain and others princes gathered prints in their encyclopedic collections and libraries. Other collectors were interested in using them as sources. Artists and craftsmen kept prints to train apprentices and use them as models and tools in the creative process. Scholars purchased them for their subject-matter and used them as historical, geographical, and scientific documents. This wide range of practices is maybe what define the most early print collecting.

В настоящей работе анализируется политическое устройство и социально-экономическая ситуация в венецианской колонии Негропонт в конце XIV–XV в. Автор приходит к выводу, что власти Республики св. Марка пытались поддерживать социальную и политическую стабильность в Негропонте, лавируя между различными этнорелигиозными группами колонии. Негропонт, его сельское и лесное хозяйство играли важную роль в обеспечении бесперебойного функционирования венецианской колониальной системы в конце XIV–XV в. / This paper analyses the political structure and socio-economic situation in the Venetian colony of Negropont in the late XIV‒XV centuries. The author concludes that the Venetian authorities tried to maintain social and political stability in Negropont, manoeuvring between different ethno-religious groups of this colony. Negropont and its agriculture and forestry played an important role in the sustained functioning of the Venetian colonial system in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Spätestens mit Erwin Panofskys bahnbrechender Arbeit über den verkleideten Symbolismus in der altniederländischen Malerei, die den Zeichencharakter ihrer minutiös-gegenständlichen Bildwelt anschaulich machte, wurde die den Werken des späten Mittelalters lang anhaftende Vorstellung eines rein aus künstlerischer Erzählfreude und Detailliebe entspringenden malerischen Realismus in Frage gestellt. In Hinsicht auf den symbolischen Wert der den Akteuren der veranschaulichten Handlung verliehenen Ausstattung findet sich in der kunstwissenschaftlichen Betrachtung allerdings noch gegenwärtig vielfach ein Umgang mit den Bildern des Mittelalters, in dem die dargestellte Bekleidung nicht im Sinne eines inhaltlichen Sinnträgers, sondern vielmehr als Zeittracht und das Kleiderbild dementsprechend als Dokumentation der historischen Moderealität gleichsam als getreues Abbild der wirklichen Welt angesehen wird. Daß man sich der kommunikativen Qualitäten der Rollenbekleidung in den massenwirksamen Bildmedien des Mittelalters sehr wohl zu bedienen wußte, können auf besonders eindrucksvolle Weise jene Quellen bezeugen, die über die Wirkungskraft der optischen Versinnlichungsmittel in den spektakulären Aufführungen der spätmittelalterlichen Passionsspiele informieren, in denen das Kostüm nicht nur Zeit und Raum des Geschehens zu bezeichnen, sondern darüberhinaus vor allem Wesen und Gesinnung der Handelnden auszuweisen hatte. In diesem Bewußtsein der KLEIDERBILDER, welche die BILDER DER PASSION in den malerischen Großrauminszenierungen der Simultandarstellungen des Kalvarienberggeschehens im ausgehenden 15. Jh. wiedergeben, möchte die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit am Beispiel der Hamburger Kreuzigungstafel aus St. Katharinen die KLEIDER DER PASSION in ihrer polyvalenten Zeichenfunktion analysieren und im Sinne der im spätmittelalterlichen DRAMA DER PASSSION inszenierten Kostümierung als permanent präsentes Informationsmedium interpretieren, das über die in ihnen eingetragenen MENSCHENBILDER Auskunft zu geben verspricht. / The long-upheld interpretation of simple pleasure in artistic narrative and love of detail to explain the use of miniscule objects to depict the world in paintings of the Old Dutch School was finally discredited by Erwin Panofskys revolutionary work on concealed symbolism. However when considering the symbolic value of costume and equipment in paintings, art historians today are still very much concerned with works from the Middle Ages in which the clothing depicted is not in keeping with the contextual weaver, but is, far more, the clothing of the time, and as such simultaneously acts as a documentation of the contemporary fashion and provides an accurate illustration of the real world. Sources which provide information of the effectiveness of the optical devices used in the spectacular performances of passion-plays in the late middle ages, in which clothing not only denotes the time and place of the event, but also the nature and direction of thought of the characters concerned, confirm most impressively that contemporary pictorical mass media quite definitely exploited the communicative qualities of costume. In this awareness of pictures of clothes, reflected by the pictures of large scale productions of passion plays performed towards the end of the 15th century, this piece of research aims - using the crucifiction panel in St Catherine's Church in Hamburg as an example - to analyse passion costumes in their polyvalent function in drawings, and to interpret the costumes used to perform passion-plays in the late Middle Ages as a permanently present medium of informationn which extends beyond the mere portrayal of charcter type.

This thesis takes as its area of exploration the papal chapel choir and its repertory, alongside the papacy and its patronage of the arts at the end of the fifteenth century. It draws on previous research concerning the singers, polyphonic manuscripts and artistic culture of the Vatican, but places Pope Alexander VI as the central figure of the thesis, showing schemes of patronage that shaped his reign. The research presents a transcription and analysis of the hymn cycle contained within the manuscript Cappella Sistina 15, alongside an assessment of the polyphonic music collection and places these against accounts of music making and evidence of music copying at the papal chapel during Alexander’s reign. The thesis also considers the environment of secular music making at Alexander’s court. In order to provide a context in which to understand this information, the life of Alexander VI is examined, tracing his artistic patronage and involvement with music both prior to his election and afterwards. Of particular note is the engagement of the artist Pintoricchio to decorate the papal apartments. Here, the artist’s representation of music as part of the seven liberal arts is analysed, providing a unique, contemporary and important insight into music practices in Alexander’s court. Three classifications of patronage are identified for Alexander’s reign, while also showing that these were strategies that he had used before he became pope. The music culture at the papal chapel is shown to be part of this strategy, through the consolidation of old music and the introduction of new music into the repertory, ending a task that had taken approximately 60 years. It shows that Alexander’s reign was an important period musically, that instituted new musical traditions and created an environment that prepared the way for the golden ages of patronage of Julius II and Leo X.

Prenant appui sur une historicisation critique des postulats méthodologiques et idéologiques au fondement des catégories d’humanisme civique et de républicanisme, la thèse entend renoncer à une lecture uniquement théorique de l’œuvre des humanistes florentins et restituer aux textes leur statut d’énoncés historiques. L’enjeu est de redessiner les lignes portantes d’une tradition civile et républicaine propre à la réalité florentine dont les penseurs des guerres d’Italie (Savonarole, Guichardin, Machiavel) seront les dépositaires critiques. Un travail d’interprétation de la correspondance familière de Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) constitue le socle de la recherche et fait apparaître la dimension juridique de la pensée du chancelier, et ce à double titre : d’une part elle révèle l’omniprésence d’un lexique juridique qui fournit l’essentiel de l’arsenal interprétatif de l’analyse politique, et d’autre part, elle définit un « office d’exhortation » qui constitue la théorie politique de Salutati non pas simplement comme une rhétorique propagandiste mais aussi comme un discours réformateur. L’apport de Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) est ainsi réévalué dans le sillage de l’humanisme politique de Salutati, et se distingue de ce dernier surtout par la valeur nouvelle accordée à l’histoire dans l’élaboration d’une langue et d’une science de la vie civile. / Starting from a critical historicization of the methodological and ideological foundations of categories such as civic humanism and republicanism, this thesis investigates the works of the Florentine humanists not only from the point of view of political theory but also in relation to their historical significance. The aim is to redefine the structural lines of a republican tradition characteristic of Florentine history, a tradition which the thinkers of the Italian Wars (Savonarola, Guicciardini, Machiavelli) inherited and criticized. An extensive reading of the private letters by Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) constitutes the central part of this work and reveals the juridical character of the Chancellor’s thought : on the one hand, the juridical vocabulary is omnipresent in the letters and provides the core of the hermeneutic tools necessary to political analysis ; on the other hand, it helps defining an « office of exhortation » which discloses Salutati’s urge for reform rather than his role of propagandist. New light is then shed on Leonardo Bruni’s contribution to political thought as Bruni is seen following the path of Salutati’s political humanism. Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444), in comparison with his master, stresses the superiority of history, but finds himself equally involved in the formulation of a language and a science of political life.

The dissertation deals with the reception of Dutch realism in the late Gothic panel painting in Bohemia. Its aim is to examine the principles of reception of new artistic forms and ideas that originated in the Dutch art centers in the 15th century. The Czech painting of the 15th century was adopting these innovative trends exclusively from the neighbouring countries. Therefore, the work addresses mainly issues related to artistic exchanges between Bohemia and the surrounding - mostly German-speaking - regions. It looks into the specific ways in which artistic exchange took place - the mobility of artists, art imports, the importance of graphic and other models. The dissertation focuses on the most important examples that show the reception of Dutch realism: The Ark of Grand Master Puchner, The Křivoklát Altarpiece, and works associated with it. These matters are addressed mainly through a formal stylistic analysis and formal comparison. In the case of the Puchner Ark, via these methods, it has been possible to point out a possible artistic basis of the author in Swabia - within a circle of the followers of the Master of the Sterzing Altarpiece. The dissertation has tried to prove the artistic origin of the Master of the Litoměřice Altarpiece within the circle of the Ulm painter B. Zeitblom. These...

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Captives. The works of Johannes Schiltberger, George of Hungary and Konstantin Mihailović as testimonies about late medieval search for identity and cultural integration in the Muslim world Bc. Karolina Srncová The master's thesis enquires into the phenomenon of late medieval reflection on Muslim society in captivity narratives, treatises and memoirs from the pen of former Christian captives. Through a comparison of testimonies by three Europeans, who spent long years in Ottoman or Tatar captivity, the thesis investigates the process of their integration in the Muslim world, their perception of this world, and the notion of it they kept after their return to Christian Europe. Apart from the literary reflection on the other the thesis also pursues authors themselves - how they perceived and constructed their cultural identity in the strange environment, what long-term modus vivendi they employed and by what narratives they tried to present their infidel past back in their homeland. Thus the work aims to contribute to our notion of the Christian-Ottoman encounters in the 15th century, but also to consider the cultural adaptability of late medieval man and the role of captives, men between two worlds, who had to cope with the demands of such an adaptation.