"Aber wer denkt im Ausland an Sammler irgendwo in Brünn!" : Hugo Hanak und der Sammeleifer im Brünn der Zwischenkriegszeit

“The Art of love,” “Metamorphoses,” “Heroides” and “The Love Elegies” written by Publius Ovidius Naso, represent important formative elements of the Roman Catholic homiletic poem “The Moralised Ovid” (L’Ovide Moralisé) written in the early 14th century by an unknown author in Old French. In the article, the ideological use of allusions and reminiscences of this poem to “The Art of Love” and “The Loves”, is analysed. Based on the comparison of Ovid’s quotes on gender roles and Christian maxims, an attempt is made to evaluate the success of the methodology of citing “The Art of Love” and “The Loves” for the purposes of creating medieval Christian ideological narrations.

Painting is a process. Canvases are cut, stretched, primed, and painted in several layers. Conservators intervene to preserve artworks. Each step of this process occurs on the material ground of painting. The term ‘ground’ therefore includes different meanings: the material, the priming as well as the composition of foreground, middle-, and background. In the 19th century, the understanding of ‘ground’ changed. Veronica Peselmann examines the conceptual and terminological understanding of ‘ground’ in that time. She presents ‘ground’ as a key term for painting, illustrated with examples from Camille Corot and Gustave Courbet.

The theme of solitude occupies a pivotal position in the artistic production and theoretical reflections of Gustave Courbet and Odilon Redon, two figures separated by distinct historical and stylistic frameworks but interconnected through their engagement with the existential dilemmas of modernity. This article undertakes a comparative analysis of their works and writings to investigate how solitude operates as a locus of artistic autonomy and a critical stance against the alienating forces of capitalist urbanization and industrial society in the 19th century. By intertwining materiality and imagination, both artists cultivate an ethical approach to isolation as a prerequisite for creative authenticity and freedom. Furthermore, this study explores the subterranean influence of Courbet’s materialism on Redon’s aesthetic strategies, shedding light on the interplay between realism and symbolism in their shared interrogation of the artist’s role within the cultural and social milieu of modernity.

Between the 16th and the 19th centuries the concept of “the amateur” shifted in sense. At the beginning of the period it referred to lovers, either of people or things, but by the end it had come to refer to non-professionals and dilettantes. This article traces the change in the word’s meaning, arguing that the shift of sense took place due to economic developments in the art trade. During the course of the seventeenth century the modern art market emerged, in which purchasers acquired art works through a network of dealers, without making contact with artists. This new anonymity of exchange led to resentment on the part of some artists and writers about art, who introduced a distinction between art lovers – amateurs – who knew nothing of art, and art knowers – connoisseurs – who were thought qualified to judge.

顧愷之是東晉著名的畫家，世稱「才絕」、「畫絕」、「癡絕」。除了對藝術的熱愛之外，他博學有才，雅好文學，個性好諧謔，並擁有多方面的興趣。從史家評議中可見，對他的評論是｢矜能過實，譚諧取容，而才多逸氣，故有三絶之目。｣現代人對顧愷之的認識多在其繪畫理論上的影響，然而在晉書的史臣筆下，他的文章｢縟藻霞煥｣、｢才多逸氣｣，可見他的文筆之美；從｢矜能過實，譚諧取容｣更可以初步得到一個有自信滿溢而又幽默的印象，這又是他博學多才之餘，表現出「癡絕」的另一面。他的「癡」同他的人格聯繫在一起，而這樣的精神人格與魏晉時期的社會風尚、人物才性、品藻標準等都密切相關。 作為山水畫創始時期的代表作家之一、也身為傑出的早期肖像畫與人物畫家，顧愷之在藝術史上的作用與影響都是極其深遠的。顧愷之的維摩詰壁畫與戴逵雕塑的文殊菩薩像以及從獅子國傳來玉像，被當時稱為瓦官寺｢三絕」。顧愷之撰有《魏晉勝流畫贊》、《論畫》和《畫雲臺山記》等三本重要論著，在繪畫理論上也有許多前所未有的觀點，如傳神寫照、遷想妙得的藝術理念，東晉顧愷之在總結前人觀點的基礎上，第一次系統的闡述了人物畫中的形神關係。從顧愷之到謝赫、宗炳、王微，從人物畫論到山水畫論，從側重於對象之神的傳達到越來越重視主體精神意趣的融入，我們可以清楚地看到六朝畫論中傳神論的發展演化。顧愷之的畫論對後世影響深遠。顧愷之從創作實踐和理論建樹兩方面，把我國古代的繪畫推向了第一個高峰。 以往學術界對顧愷之的研究，總是側重於其繪畫方面的傑出成就，而對其在書法、藝術理論及文學創作諸多方面的成就未加以深入研究。因此，本文將以｢才、癡、畫三絕｣為主軸，嘗試從他的時代背景、家族門風、宗教信仰剖析東晉的顧愷之，並且多元延伸觸角來解讀顧愷之，甚至探討出顧愷之對後世的影響。期盼能在「畫絕」之餘，更深入的描繪出顧愷之「才絕」與「癡絕」的文人形象。

The article is dedicated to the analysis of Peruvian travelogues of German-speaking travelers in the second half of 19th — early 20th centuries. Until now, this material has not attracted the attention of americanists. In the present analysis the author sets the following tasks: identifying the place of Peru in the German social and cultural discourse of the corresponding period; describing the social portrait of the German traveler in Peru; highlighting the main patterns underlying the image of Peru created by travelers; analyzing factors that influenced the creation of these patterns. The analysis shows the following results. First, the place of Peru in German discourse can be described as insignificant. Secondly, the typical German traveler to Peru was an educated middle-class person with a certain background concerning the Peruvian theme. Third, the author identifies the following patterns — stable sets of ideas about Peru: exoticism, mostly negative image of local habitants, dichotomy of the Peruvian past and present, in which the past acts as an era of glory, and the present — as the time of decline; view of the landscape as a reflection of the political and economic state of the country. The author also characterizes the main descriptive model of Peru for German travelers as “realistic”. Finally, the author identifies some factors that influenced the formation of the image of this country, in particular, the colonial discourse and the racial theory, as well as the political sympathies of the travelers themselves.

Nineteenth-century French Realism was a loosely aligned artistic movement that favored depictions of everyday life based on direct observation, typically paintings focused on working class or peasant subjects. In this sense, art historians often capitalize the word “Realism” to distinguish it from “realism” or “naturalism,” terms that denote artistic fidelity to appearance, whatever the subject matter or period. Realism in the visual arts parallels a turn away from Romanticism in literature, as indicated in the works of Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, and Emile Zola. Stylistic and iconographic precedents to Realism can be found in the urban scenes of the politically engaged art social of the 1830s—Philippe-Auguste Jeanron is typical—and in Barbizon paintings of landscapes and peasants. However, it is only after the public revelation of the invention of photography in 1839 that Realism emerged as a coherent alternative to the idealized representations favored by the Academy. As a movement, Realism’s period of greatest prominence lasted from the 1840s to the 1870s, with the apex of its cultural significance in the decade after the Revolution of 1848. Its relation to politics—democracy and socialism, most notably—has been a subject of controversy from the beginning, with sympathetic early critics like Max Buchon and Champfleury offering very different accounts of the same works. Five artists have come to exemplify nineteenth-century French Realism: Honoré Daumier, Jean-François Millet, Gustave Courbet, Rosa Bonheur, and, to a lesser extent, Jules Breton. Much of the writing on Realism takes the form of focused studies of their work. Some general histories of Realism include the work of Edouard Manet and artists close to him in the 1860s, although specialized studies tend to treat them as either transitioning away from Realism or overturning it entirely. French Realism had numerous international counterparts and followers. Nonetheless, art historians debate the extent to which these various national schools fall under the rubric of Realism, and consequently they remain a distinct area of study. Although the historical legacy of Realism is complex, closely related concerns can be found in two movements that followed: Impressionism and Naturalism. The revival of Realism in the twentieth century constitutes a separate topic.

The 18th century was a period of intensive cultural changes in Europe. For Poland, this was the beginning of the reign of a new dynasty – the Wettins. As a lover of art and collector of Far Eastern porcelain, the first king of this dynasty, August II, led to the establishment of the first European porcelain factory in 1710 in Saxon Meissen. Early Meissen products include coffee and tea sets as an expression of socio-cultural changes related to changes in culinary habits. The work aims to present early Meissen products as evidence of the rapid development of consumption of new beverages, as well as to announce the interesting phenomenon of the occurrence of a relatively large number of vessels from early manufacturing activities in Warsaw, which will be confronted with analogies from other cities in present-day Poland.

The literary canon, firmly circumscribed and defined by numerous literary histories which establish the standards of our field, provides a most useful hermeneutic framework for everything we do in literary studies, hence in German Studies. Yes, Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka have proven to be giants in our field. And so have Heinrich von Veldeke, Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strassburg, Walther von der Vogelweide, and many others. What can the current state of art in Medieval Studies tell us about the problematic issues concerning the canon (see the new Handbook of Medieval Studies, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010)? Both in research and in teaching there are always two stages in the critical treatment of the canon. Pedagogically it seems most advisable at first to present our students with the canon and to help them to digest it thoroughly, so that they can easily draw connections and move from one author/poet to the other, can explain historical, aesthetic, and social developments, and are informed enough to recognize genres, common motifs, the essential Stoff oi a text, and thus can comprehend how to differentiate among the various literary periods. However, although the canon proves productive for pragmatic purposes, it may also turn out to be stifling and blinding in the long run if we do not establish a healthy distance from it. Critical interpretations and meticulous analyses have regularly brought about so-called cultural or literary turns; they have helped us to recognize heretofore unknown poets and texts, and have forced us to reveal ideological biases, religious manipulations, and political agendas hidden in literary texts that make up our canon. Case in point: the rediscovery of Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376/77-1445) in ca. 1959. Since then we have also begun to explore, invigorated by the insights which Oswald's poetry has provided us, the rather refreshing and impressive poetry by the so-called Monch von Salzburg, Hugo von Montfort, and Michel Beheim. Whereas traditional Germanistik conveyed the impression that the heyday of medieval German literature lay around 1200, today we have moved on considerably and learned to acknowledge the highly productive, often quite surprising and unexpected world from the 13th through the 15th centuries. Konrad von Wurzburg (fi. ca. 1270-1300) now certainly deserves our full acknowledgment as one of the masters of his time. But we are still on the tip of an iceberg, so to speak, considering the extensive number of late-medieval romances that have come into focus only recently, or are still awaiting their full rediscovery (Mai und Beaflor, ed. and trans. A. Classen, 2009; Reinfried von Braunschweig, 1871, rpt. 1997; Wilhelm von Osterreich, ed. 1906, rpt. 1970). Heinrich von dem Turlin's Diu Crane proves to be most challenging, posing countless questions that still cannot be fully answered (Markus Wennerhold, Spate mittelhochdeutsche Artusromane, 2005). But both the English translation by J. W Thomas (1989) and many scholarly monographs since then confirm how intriguing this text has proven to be. When and how well will we be able to teach such voluminous and complicated romances with the help of student-friendly and inexpensive editions/translations? The novels by Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrucken (1437) belong to the best works produced by a 15th-century female writer, but until today we do not have a satisfactory critical edition of any of those texts in our hands (see the contributions to Furstliche Frauentexte in Mittelalter und fruher Neuzeit, ed. Wolfgang Haubrichs et al., 2010) . There are a number of other significant German medieval women writers, apart from the famous mystics, such as Frau Ava, or anonymous 15th-century women's songs often to be found in larger songbook collections (mostly anonymous, however, though with clear gender orientation), which the canon has not completely ignored, but certainly left on the sideline. …

Italy is a country that exercises a hold on the imagination of people all over the world. Its long history has left an inexhaustible treasure chest of cultural achievement. The historic cities of Rome, Florence, and Venice are among the most sought-after destinations in the world for tourists and art lovers, and Italy's natural beauty and cuisine are rightly renowned. Italy's history and politics are also a source of endless fascination. Modern Italy has consistently been a political laboratory for the rest of Europe. In the 19th century, Italian patriotism was of crucial importance in the struggle against the absolute governments reintroduced after the Congress of Vienna, 1814-15. After the fall of Fascism during World War II, Italy became a model of rapid economic development, though its politics has never been less than contentious and its democracy has remained a troubled one. The A to Z of Modern Italy is an attempt to introduce the key personalities, events, social developments, and cultural achievements of Italy since the beginning of the 19th century, when Italy first began to emerge as something more than a geographical entity and national feeling began to grow. This is done through a chronology, a list of acronyms and abbreviations, an introductory essay, a map, a bibliography, and some 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on prominent individuals, basic institutions, crucial events, history, politics, economics, society, and culture.

Castration: An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood

Antoine Watteau and art lovers in 18th century: Achievement and meaning of a new reference research about L’enseigne de Gersaint

Will to the Original: Platonism in Henry James’ <i>Roderick Hudson</i>

Donald F. Steiner: great scientist, close friend, real 'Mensch'.

Of the three major elegists—Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid—Tibullus is today probably the most difficult to approach. He is often less valued than the more modernist Propertius or the more witty and playful Ovid. This was not always the case. Quintilian famously writes, “mihi tersus atque elegans maxime uidetur auctor Tibullus. Sunt qui Propertium malint” [“In my opinion Tibullus is a very elegant and concise author. There are those who prefer Propertius”] (Inst. 10.1.93). Ovid terms Tibullus cultus or “polished” (Amores 3.9.66). The ancients held Tibullus in high regard and valued him above all for his smooth style. In the latter part of the 20th century, however, with the publication of Bright’s Haec mihi Fingebam: Tibullus and His World (1978) and Cairns’s Tibullus: A Hellenistic Poet at Rome (1979), Tibullus once again began receiving more attention. In recent years, his stock has risen further with the publication of several influential articles, chapters, and dissertations, including: Fineberg, “Configurations of Desire in the Elegies of Tibullus” (1991); Kennedy, The Arts of Love: Five Essays in the Discourse of Roman Love Elegy (1993); Miller, Subjecting Verses: Latin Love Elegy and the Emergence of the Real (2004); and Wray, “What Poets Do: Tibullus on ‘Easy’ Hands” (2003) et al., as well as a new commentary (Maltby, Tibullus: Elegies. Text, Introduction, and Commentary, 2002). One of the commonplaces of Tibullan criticism is the dream-like quality of his text. This view often goes hand in hand with the devaluation of his poetry as soft and lacking in formal integrity. Smith once characterized his poetry as “smooth” and “drifting.” More postively, it can be seen as nonlinear and working by association (Veyne, Roman Erotic Elegy: Love Poetry and the West, 1988, p. 36). In any case, his texts are less a series of rhetorical arguments or narratives, than complex tissues of interwoven and sometimes contradictory themes and images. Information on Tibullus’s life is scarce. He was born between 60 and 55 bce and died in 19 bce. Ancient testimony links him to the area near the village of Pedum in the Alban hills east of Rome. He was closely associated with the orator and general, M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus (64 bce to 8 ce), whom he appears to have accompanied on his Acquitanian campaign and perhaps on others. He also seems to have known Horace. Tibullus’s poetry, unlike Propertius or Ovid’s, is all but free of references to Augustus and the nascent imperial regime. From a statement in poem 1.1, we can reasonably deduce that Tibullus’s family, like many others, suffered a reduction of fortune during the proscriptions carried out by the members of the second triumvirate after the defeat of the republican assassins of Caesar.