Martin Deutsch — Ondřej Jakubec — Jan Malý

The past revived: Anachronic and historicising principles of Jesuit visual culture in early modern Moravia

This study analyses visual material relating to Jesuit in Moravia from the 16th to the 18th century. This chronological framework illustrates the consistent manner in which the Jesuits approached the past, with references to ancient/medieval times representing a key aspect of their religious and visual policy. The study also considers these references in specific examples as symptoms of historicising or anachronistic visual thinking in the early modern period. Jesuit representational strategies were based on the postTridentine historia sacra, which used the history of the Church as a model for reform and counter-reformation. In the interconnected visual and religious politics of the Jesuits, two approaches to evoking the past can be observed: the first, level of local level traditions (e.g. references to the 9th-century early Christian Moravian missionaries St. Cyril and St. Methodius, the 13th-century legend of Jaroslav of Šternberk, and the 14th-century cult of St. Anne), and the second, global form of Jesuit policy related to the use of ancient, supra-regional models linked to the tradition of universal Catholicism (icon Salus Populi Romani, early Christian martyrs). These evocations of the past formed a complex ecosystem of revived memory, shaped by various media. Imaginative references to the past were naturally supported by cultic and devotional practices that created a sensually appealing atmosphere, an important component of which was visual media. From a temporal perspective, visual objects shared temporal heteronymy in a single moment and space, breaking down the boundaries between the present and the past in the process of revival. The Jesuits‘ evocation of the past permeated a range of media, becoming a key part of their political communication strategies, which used evocation as a tool for political legitimisation and confessional mission. This reflected an anachronistic way of thinking, blurring the boundaries between the past and the present. While this approach is not unique, examples from this Central European context provide compelling evidence of the ‚politics of memory‘ fundamental to pre-modern identity and imagination.

Author's email:

martin.deutsch@mendelu.cz, jakubec@phil.muni.cz, jan.maly01@upol.cz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54759/ART-2025-0304



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