Middle Ages; Hussites; painting; Central Europe

The paper will examine 15th century visual culture in Central Europe, especially in Bohemia, Silesia and Hungary, in context of dramatic religious and socio-cultural transformation. The Bohemian Utraquist movement of the period, also known as the Hussites, was regarded by the European theologians as heretical, evil, and therefore unacceptable. Because of the power of the movement, Bohemia was regarded by its Christian neighbours as enemy, apostate, and thereby ?the other.? Czech research recently examined this phenomenon in Central Europe in written sources, but its reflection in visual culture is yet awaiting thorough studies. To address the problem, this research poses the following questions: Is there any generally understandable visual representation of the Hussites in the Central European art? Are there any formal / iconographic differences between the 15th Century Catholic and Utraquist art? If yes, is the visual similarity or differentiation an intentional and correlative aspect of Bohemian art, or rather, is it an optical illusion?