Kateřina Horníčková

The Emergence of the Narrative: Historia sacra and the “Cultification” of Medieval Works among the Transalpine Jesuits

The study explores how Jesuits in the post-Tridentine era transformed medieval Marian artworks—statues and images—into instruments of Catholic identity building and missionary strategy. This “cultification” of medieval artifacts was closely tied to the rise of historia sacra, a narrative mode combining theology, historiography, and visual culture. Ancient or archaic-looking works were regarded as vera signa, true signs of the original faith, whose age, provenance, and survival through heresy attested to their authenticity. Jesuit scholars, inspired by historical erudition and humanist methods (notably Justus Lipsius and Bohuslav Balbín), constructed legendary famae around these objects, accentuating their miraculous power and cultic authority. Such narrative models spread across Central Europe, where the Jesuits employed Marian pilgrimages to foster Catholic devotion and reconvert non-Catholic regions. In Bohemia, this tradition merged with patriotic historiography: Balbín interpreted ancient artworks as vestigiae pietatis, traces of venerable piety that must be preserved and explained. The study argues that the Jesuit synthesis of historical erudition, theological reasoning, and visual testimony became a key element of Baroque identity and cultural mission in Central Europe.

Author's email:

katerina.hornickova@upol.cz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54759/ART-2025-0303



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