Bohemian art of the second half of the fourteenth century is closely associated with the personality of Charles IV, Emperor of the Romans and King of Bohemia (1316--1378). In an effort to legitimize his reign as ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and to raise the profile of his ancestral Bohemian lands, he leaned on the power of history to reveal his heritage as stemming, on one side, from an illustrious line of emperors including Charlemagne, and on the other, from the dynasty of Bohemian sovereigns. He recognized that art could display this legitimization and so implemented a programme of historicism in his artistic commissions. His impact on Bohemian art was indirect as well: his ideas influenced the art patronage of his closest court advisers, as seen in this paper through the examples of two illuminated manuscripts, the Evangeliary of John of Opava and the Liber viaticus.

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