This volume critically investigates how art historians writing about Central and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries engaged with periodization. At the heart of much of their writing lay the ideological project of nation-building. Hence discourses around periodization – such as the mythicizing of certain periods, the invention of historical continuity and the assertion of national specificity – contributed strongly to identity construction. Central to the book’s approach is a transnational exploration of how the art histories of the region not only interacted with established Western periodizations but also resonated and ‘entangled’ with each other. In their efforts to develop more sympathetic frameworks that refined, ignored or hybridized Western models, they sought to overcome the centre–periphery paradigm which equated distance from the centre with temporal belatedness and artistic backwardness. The book thus demonstrates that the concept of periodization is far from neutral or strictly descriptive, and that its use in art history needs to be reconsidered. Bringing together a broad range of scholars from different European institutions, the volume offers a unique new perspective on Central and Eastern European art historiography. It will be of interest to scholars working in art history, historiography and European studies.

This Element sketches a theory of historical time as based on a distinction between temporality and historicity. It pays special attention to the more-than-human temporalities of the Anthropocene, the technology-fueled historicities of runaway changes, and the conflicts in the fabric of historical time.

What is the contemporary cultural legacy of Byzantium or The Eastern Roman Empire? This book explores the varied reception history of the Byzantine Empire across a range of cultural production. Split into four sections: the origins of 'Byzantomania' in France, modern media, literature, and politics, it provides case studies which show the numerous ways in which the empire's legacy can be felt today. Covering television, video games and contemporary political discourse, contributors also consider a wide range of national and geographical perspectives including Russian, Turkish, Polish, Greek and Hungarian. It will be essential reading for scholars and students of the reception and cultural history of the Byzantine Empire.

A long-overdue reassessment of post-1918 Salzburg as a distinct Austrian cultural hub that experimented in moving beyond war and empire into a modern, self-consciously inclusive, and international center for European culture. For over 300 years, Salzburg had its own legacy as a city-state at an international crossroads, less stratified than Europe's colonial capitals and seeking a political identity based in civic participation with its own economy and politics. After World War I, Salzburg became a refuge. Its urban and bucolic spaces staged encounters that had been brutally cut apart by the war; its deep-seated traditions of citizenship, art, and education guided its path. In Interwar Salzburg, contributors from around the globe recover an evolving but now lost vanguard of European culture, fostering not only new identities in visual and performing arts, film, music, and literature, but also a festival culture aimed at cultivating an inclusive public (not an international elite) and a civic culture sharing public institutions, sports, tourism, and a diverse spectrum of cultural identities serving a new European ideal.

This volume aims to broaden and nuance knowledge about the history, art, culture, and heritage of Eastern Europe relative to Byzantium. From the thirteenth century to the decades after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the regions of the Danube River stood at the intersection of different traditions, and the river itself has served as a marker of connection and division, as well as a site of cultural contact and negotiation. The Routledge Handbook of Byzantine Visual Culture in the Danube Regions, 1300–1600 brings to light the interconnectedness of this broad geographical area too often either studied in parts or neglected altogether, emphasizing its shared history and heritage of the regions of modern Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia. The aim is to challenge established perceptions of what constitutes ideological and historical facets of the past, as well as Byzantine and post-Byzantine cultural and artistic production in a region of the world that has yet to establish a firm footing on the map of art history. The 24 chapters offer a fresh and original approach to the history, literature, and art history of the Danube regions, thus being accessible to students thematically, chronologically, or by case study; each part can be read independently or explored as part of a whole.

This volume explores a basic question in the historiography of art: the extent to which iconology was a homogenous research method in its own immutable right. By contributing to the rejection of the universalizing narrative, these case studies argue that there were many strands of iconology. Methods that differed from the ‘canonised’ approach of Panofsky were proposed by Godefridus Johannes Hoogewerff and Hans Sedlmayr. Researchers affiliated with the Warburg Institute in London also chose to distance themselves from Panofsky’s work. Poland, in turn, was the breeding ground for yet another distinct variety of iconology. In Communist Czechoslovakia there were attempts to develop a ‘Marxist iconology’. This book, written by recognized experts in the field, examines these and other major strands of iconology, telling the tale of iconology’s reception in the countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain. Attitudes there ranged from enthusiastic acceptance in Poland, to critical reception in the Soviet Union, to reinterpretation in Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic, and, finally, to outright rejection in Romania. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual studies, and historiography.

This edited volume studies the logic of community formation and the common view of the past to show how various social bonds of communities functioned during the modern national era of East-Central Europe from the late eighteenth century until today and how multifaceted this group-building really was. Through an overview of selected examples of communities in East-Central European urban centres, mainly the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its successor empires, the volume shows the potential of re-interpretation or adaptation of the past as a crucial tool for assuring social cohesion and for strengthening the image of group boundaries. It studies not only textual sources but also the cultural construction of local historical writings such as oral tradition and municipal publications, as well as symbolic objects such as epitaphs, plaques, monuments and public edifices. The contributors explore the actual creativity employed by these communities to envision their past and their future in homage to the ideals of centralised nationalism or regionalism and how these strongly ethnically marked historic spaces can be interpreted, celebrated or neglected. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of regional urban history and cultural diversities, memory cultures and community formation.

While the domestic sphere might seem tangential to the dire political situation and humanitarian crises of interwar Europe, it was nevertheless at the forefront of debates about cultural identity and economic policy in the Viennese press, culture, and arts. Vienna and the New Wohnkultur, 1918-1938 explores why and how the Viennese design landscape was set apart--aesthetically and theoretically--from other European explorations of modern design. Jackson-Beckett examines interior design exhibitions, press, and debates about modern living in interwar Vienna, an overlooked area of modern European architecture and design history, arguing for a reconsideration of the contours of European modernism. The text analyses varied interpretations of modern domestic culture (Wohnkultur) in Vienna, and explores why these interpretations were distinct from other strands of European modernism. Vienna and the New Wohnkultur introduces new research and translation of primary sources on flexible, adaptable, and affordable design by architects, designers, and retailers. Vienna's design discourse also prefigured important postmodern and contemporary discussions on historicism, eclecticism, empathy, and user experience. Through extensive new research in archival and period sources, Jackson-Beckett illustrates how design ideas, taste, and portrayals of domestic culture of fin-de-si?cle Viennese Modernism (Wiener Moderne) were also deployed as forms of cultural and national identity both during the early years of the Social Democratic government in Vienna (1918-1934) and later under the fascist state (1934-1938).

By the late Middle Ages, manifestations of Marian devotion had become multifaceted and covered all aspects of religious, private and personal life. Mary becomes a universal presence that accompanies the faithful on pilgrimage, in dreams, as holy visions, and as pictorial representations in church space and domestic interiors. The first part of the volume traces the development of Marian iconography in sculpture, panel paintings, and objects, such as seals, with particular emphasis on Italy, Slovenia and the Hungarian Kingdom. The second section traces the use of Marian devotion in relation to space, be that a country or territory, a monastery or church or personal space, and explores the use of space in shaping new liturgical practices, new Marian feasts and performances, and the bodily performance of ritual objects.

This volume examines the reach of modernism in design and performance in interwar Romania. It follows the transnational trajectories of several remarkable Jewish avant-garde artists, actors, and directors based in Bucharest, the country’s capital, in the 1920s and 1930s. The first part of the book recovers the history of Bucharest’s first modern design institution and investigates its links with German design and the Bauhaus. The second half focuses on several innovative collaborations in the realm of Yiddish theatre, including the time spent in Romania by the world-renowned Vilna Troupe. Based on extensive original research, the book shows how Bucharest was connected to Berlin, Riga, and Chicago, highlighting the contribution of Jewish cultural production to avant-garde movements in Europe and beyond.