No description available.

This study is an investigation of the subject matter of eighty Italian cassone paintings of the fifteenth century now located in the United States and answers a four-part question: (1) What were the major themes pictured on cassoni panels during the Quattrocento? (2) Were the themes of cassoni in Quattrocento Italy predominantly of a religious or secular nature? (3) If secular subject matter was dominant in cassone painting, was this a reflection of the newly founded tastes of aristocratic, wealthy and middle classes? (4) Did cassoni mirror the way these classes viewed themselves and the place occupied by women in society?

The main focus of the dissertation is 15th century Italian court dance, which was one of the prime manifestations of the emerging aristocratic society all across renaissance Europe. The dissertation draws on a detailed research into original dance notations and works on dance theory of dance masters Domenico da Piacenza, Antonio Cornazana and Guglielmo Ebreo/Giovanni Ambrosio and contains first-time Czech translations of important parts of these works. The text first addresses general issues (occasions and locations for dancing, dance education and the role of the dance master, functions of dance in a given historical period, intellectual and philosophical framework of early dance treatises) and moves on to analyse specific features of period dance theory and provides a description of ractical aspects of the realization of dance choreography (basic steps and movements, figures, spatial dance forms etc.). The dissertation contains a reconstruction of one such dance choreography. A certain journey into related fields and later historical periods are chapters on the aesthetic of movement (required posture, position of the head, facial expression, hand gestures etc.) and period etiquette (acceptance of social hierarchy in dance and beyond, ways of showing respect and greetings, asking to dance and...