Course detail

Baroque Art History Overview

FaVU-1PDU-BAcad. year: 2026/2027

The course presents seventeenth- and eighteenth-century art as a global visual culture of the early modern period and traces its relationship to religion, politics, imperial expansion, and cultural exchange. Alongside traditional centers such as Rome, Madrid, Versailles, Antwerp, Prague, or Vienna, it also focuses on colonial Latin America and Jesuit missions in East Asia, showing how European artistic forms transform in contact with other cultural traditions. The course includes a historiographical reflection on the concept of "Baroque" itself and its shifting meaning within art history, as well as a critical discussion on the geographical and temporal boundaries of this period. Teaching is based on specific case studies selected to present the broadest possible range of artistic media, materials, and modes of visual expression, while simultaneously opening up broader historical, cultural, and social contexts. The course is structured primarily around thematic lectures, but active student participation and debate are strongly encouraged during each session.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

3

Assignment to study programme types

Bachelor's

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

PhDr. Kaliopi Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Entry knowledge

The course anticipates orientation in art history acquired in compulsory art history courses from the first year of studies, as well as the general history knowledge.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

The final oral exam evaluates visual literacy through the analysis of four images (two from lectures, two unseen comparative works). Up to two absences during the semester are permitted without requiring justification.

Aims

The aim of the course is to develop the capacity for independent analysis and interpretation of early modern works of art using more advanced methods of art history. Students will deepen their visual analysis skills and learn to work with complex relationships between form, function, material, technology, and the historical context of works of art.

The course encourages students to think critically about the ways in which works of art are interpreted, categorized, and situated within art history. It develops the ability to perceive seventeenth- and eighteenth-century art as a dynamic cultural phenomenon and to use specific examples for independent interpretation grounded in specialized terminology and current approaches in the discipline.

 

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Bailey, Gauvin Alexander. Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. (EN)
Bartlová, Milena. Naše, domácí, národní umění: Dějiny umění v českých zemích 1890–1950. Praha: UMPRUM, 2024. (CS)
Blažíček, Oldřich J. Umění baroku v Čechách. Praha: Obelisk, 1971. (CS)
Brown, Jonathan. In the Shadow of Velázquez: A History of Spanish Baroque Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. (EN)
Coelho, Victor Anand, Chua, Daniel K. L. The Art of Splendor: Style and Substance in the French Baroque. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. (EN)
DaCosta Kaufmann, Thomas. Court, Cloister, and City: The Art and Culture of Central Europe, 1450–1800. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. (EN)
DaCosta Kaufmann, Thomas, Dossin, Catherine, Joyeux-Prunel, Béatrice (eds.). Circulations in the Global History of Art. London: Routledge, 2015. (EN)
DaCosta Kaufmann, Thomas. Toward a Geography of Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. (EN)
Gruzinski, Serge. The Mestizo Mind: The Intellectual Dynamics of Colonization and Globalization. New York: Routledge, 2002. (EN)
Hills, Helen. Rethinking the Baroque. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011. (EN)
Chalupecký, Jindřich. „Obhajoba baroka.“ In: Červenka, Miroslav a Vladimír Karfík, eds. Obhajoba umění 1934–1948. 1. vyd. Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1991, s. 43–52. (CS)
Kroupa, Jiří (ed.). Dans le miroir des ombres: La peinture baroque en Moravie (1670–1770) / V zrcadle stínů: Barokní malířství na Moravě. Rennes - Brno: Musée des Beaux-Arts - Moravská galerie, 2002. (EN)
Levy, Evonne, Kessler, Herbert L. (eds.). The Baroque in Rome: The Shaping of a Myth. Rome: Campisano Editore, 2018. (EN)
Levy, Evonne. Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. (EN)
Macek, Petr et al. Barokní architektura v Čechách. Praha: Karolinum, 2022. (CS)
O’Malley, John W., Bailey, Gauvin Alexander, Harris, Steven J., Kennedy, T. Frank (eds.). The Jesuits and the Arts 1540–1773. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2005. (EN)
Vlnas, Vít (ed.). Sláva barokní Čechie: Umění, kultura a společnost 17. a 18. století. Praha: Národní galerie, 2001. (CS)
Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy 1600–1750. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. (EN)
Wölfflin, Heinrich. Renaissance und Barock. Basel: Schwabe, 1888. (česky: Renesance a baroko, Praha: Odeon, 1980) (EN)
Zamora, Lois Parkinson, and Monika Kaup (eds.). Baroque New Worlds: Representation, Transculturation, Counterconquest. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. (EN)

Recommended reading

Not applicable.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM_B Bachelor's 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

24 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

PhDr. Kaliopi Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.

Syllabus

    1. What is the Baroque? Historiography and the Problem of Style
    2. Rome and the Visual Culture of the Catholic Reformation
    3. Italy: Between Naturalism and Theatricality
    4. Spain: Piety, Monarchy, and the Visual Culture of the "Golden Age"
    5. Art in Colonial Latin America
    6. The Southern Netherlands: Image, Commerce, and Catholic Renewal
    7. The Dutch Republic and the Art of the "Golden Age"
    8. France: Classicism, the Court, and the Representation of Absolutism
    9. Central Europe I: Habsburg Baroque and Confession
    10. Central Europe II: Bohemian Baroque and Its Interpretations
    11. East Asia and the Jesuit Missions
    12. Rococo, the Enlightenment, and the Transformation of the "Baroque World"

 

Individual preparation - study of technical texts

20 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

PhDr. Kaliopi Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.

Individual preparation for a final exam

16 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

PhDr. Kaliopi Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.