/Abstract / Analysis of the sixteenth- and seventeenth- of Brethren” church in Mladá Boleslav, seat of one - century Czech environment enables study of the of the bishoprics). At the same time, ties to Roman specifics of sacred architecture in post-Reforma- prototypes are observed among Catholics in the case tion Europe and, more broadly, of the problem of of Olomouc, the seat of bishops of Moravia, where the “confessionalization” of Early Modern architec- “confessional architecture” became a special tool ture. Several sacred buildings, both Catholic and of the Counter - Reformation. non- Catholic, were founded with special reference to the remarkable environment of Rome, which, / Keywords / Confessional Architecture, Architectu- in the sixteenth century, enjoyed renewed vita li- ral Patronage, Unity of Brethren, Mladá Boleslav, t y as a central source of artistic and religious work. Olomouc As such, Rome, for various reasons, inspired the churches of two religious groups : Catholics and the Ondřej Jakubec Unity of Brethren, a unique denomination in Czech Department of Art History lands. The most remarkable example serves the Masaryk University in Brno Unity of Brethren ( later called “Rome of the Unity [email protected] 250 Roman References in Early Modern Central European Confessional Architecture Ondřej Jakubec The Confessionalization of Art as a Research Issue The subject of the “confessionalization” of Early as the 1980s 3. Although its essence linking religious Modern architecture or the specifics of sacred archi- pressure to the principles for building the modern tecture in post-Reformation Europe is un doubt- state and asserting state and Church power is often edly an important current topic, albeit one whose challenged, many aspects of this theory are still formulation is only in the nascent stages1. However, instructive. Above all, it remains valid that we see emerging right from the beginning is the method- on many levels in sixteenth-century Europe a great ological problem of the relevance of the conscious variety of confessional policies reflecting the rich application of art forms and architecture in a con- forms and dynamic of religious life in individual fessionally- polemical or manifestation sense. This social environments. Despite all of the criticism, it mainly concerns denominationally divided central seems that even the confessionalization thesis of Europe in the sixteenth century at a time when Heinz Schilling and Wolfgang Reinhard included con fes­­sional-political borders remained undefined. to a certain extent these circles of issues, focusing in It was not until the Peace of Westphalia that the a stimulating manner not only on the political but religious map of central Europe was firmly drawn also the social and cultural dimension of the issue. for years to come 2, although this naturally did not It can therefore be interesting for an art his- mean that no interesting interactions occurred along torian that Reinhard’s “seven aspects”4 of confes- the borders. Prior to this time, all religious or reli- sionalization include a number of subjects that can gious -political factions sought the greatest degree of hegemony in this multi- confessional (most often 1 Susanne Wegmann, Gabriele Wimböck, Konfessionen im Kirchenraum. Dimensionen des Sakralraums in der Frühen Neuzeit, Korb 2007; Heinz bi-confessional) environment, a process that was Schilling , “Urban architecture and ritual in confessional Europe”, in accompanied in many places by numerous conflicts Religion and Cultural Exchange in Europe, 1400 –1700, Heinz Schilling, István György Tóth eds, Cambridge 2006, pp. 116 –137. as well as interesting forms of confessional coexis- 2 Im Glanz des Friedens. Kunst und Könige in Westfalen, Elke Werner ed., tence. The extent to which this was also reflected in Münster 1998; 30jähriger Krieg, Münster und der Westfälische Frieden, Hans Galen ed., Münster 1998; 1648: Krieg und Frieden in Europa, Klaus art, or how much the actual form of art contributed Bussmann, Heinz Schilling eds, Münster 1998. to this confessional rivalry or differentiation, is 3 Jörg Deventer, “‘Confessionalization’ – a Useful Theoretical Concept for the Study of Religion, Politics, and Society in Early Modern East- Cen- a fundamental question. German historiography tral Europe? ”, European Review of History, xi (2004), pp. 403 – 425. attempted to resolve this issue using the concept 4 Wolfgang Reinhard, “Zwang zur Konfessionalisierung? Prolegom- ena zu einer Theorie des konfessionellen Zeitalters”, Zeitschrift für of confessionalization (Konfessionalisierung) as early historische Forschung, x (1983), pp. 263 –266. 251 be followed in visual material – the promotion of religious convictions, cults and beliefs through iconographic representations (art as a catechism medium), as well as their use in the promotion of confessional identity (art as a tool of religious propaganda). Simi larly, some artworks can be per- ceived as a form of joint identity within a specific community or, in contrast, as a means of differenti- ation from other “confessional cultures”5 and societ- ies (art as a means of communication). The roles of religious monuments and art, just like “confessional spatial structure” in the environment of central Eu- rope’s denominationally divided towns, must be re- garded as a key topic in this debate. This approach was recently directly applied by Heinz Schilling in his study on the confes sional-architectural topog- raphy of Early Modern towns in central Europe. His thesis assumes that “architectural sterility and invariability” prevailed in Protestant towns; on the other hand, he defined Catholic sacred architecture as distinctive islands with demonstrative and imagi- native new forms 6. Similarly, Anna Ohlidal recently traced the confessionality of architectural topogra- phy in Prague 7. She correctly pointed out that the issue includes not only the buildings themselves, i. e. their form, but also the space they defined and cre- ated, which is above all social space. Church build- ings firmly tied to ritualised forms of behaviour and gathering played an important confessionally constitutive, demonstrative and manipulative role in this urban space 8. This study will definitely not attempt a com- plete analysis of the phenomenon of confessional architecture in the sixteenth century 9. Instead, it will attempt to use several examples to point out the possibilities that this art history issue offers. The starting point will be the Czech environment in the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century and several sacred buildings 1 / Matteo Borgorelli, ground plan related to the environment of Rome in a clear and of the church of Unity of Brethren, Brandýs nad Labem, 1541–1542 interesting manner. Both non- Catholic and Catholic architecture will be studied, and it will be shown 2 / Matteo Borgorelli, ground plan of that the remarkable environment of Rome, which St Havel, Mladá Boleslav, 1555 in the sixteenth century again became a central 3 / Ground plan, church of The Unity and reference location for artistic and religious of Brethren, Mladá Boleslav, 1553 work in Early Modern Europe, could for various 4 / Interior of Sant’Onofrio at reasons inspire both main religious groups. In ad- Gianicolo, Rome, 1434 –1444 dition to Catholic churches, the paper also looks at the churches of the Unity of Brethren as a unique denomination in the Czech lands. The aim of this article is quite modest – an outline of the problem of various responses to Rome by representatives of different denominational groups around 1600 in confessionally divided Central-Europe. The key point is that the “Roman inspirations” could comprise concrete artistic forms as well as set of religious ideas, which could refer to historicist as well as actual motifs. The paper thus focuses more than on concrete examples and comparisons on the general idea of diversity of inspiration, adaptation and transformation of the Roman inspiration sources and their intricate impact on Early Modern Central Europe. The Unity of Brethren and its church in Mladá Boleslav as a reflection of an Early Christian basilica The Unity of Brethren was established in Bo- hemia in the middle of the fifteenth century as a unique denomination returning to the principles of the radical Hussite reformation10. At the same 5 Thomas Kaufmann, Dreißigjähriger Krieg und Westfälischer Friede. Kirch- engeschichtliche Studien zur lutherischen Konfessionskultur, Tübingen 1998. 6 Heinz Schilling, “Die konfessionelle Stadt – eine Problemskizze”, in Historische Anstöße. Festschrift für Wolfgang Reinhard zum 65. Geburtstag am 10. April 2002, Peter Burschel [et al.] eds, Berlin 2002, pp. 60 – 83. 7 Anna Ohlidal, “Kirchenbau in der multikonfessionellen Stadt. Zur konfessionellen Prägung und Besetzung des städtischen Raums in den Prager Städten um 1600”, in Stadt und Religion in der Frühen Neuzeit. Soziale Ordnungen und ihre Repräsentationen, Vera Isaiasz [et al.] eds, Frankfurt am Main 2007, pp. 79 – 80. A similar opin- ion for Central Europe in general was also formulated by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Toward a Geography of Art, Chicago/ London 2004, pp. 246 – 262. On the confessionality of Lutheran architecture in the Czech lands based on the example of Prague Lutheran churches, see Kai Wenzel, “Abgrenzung durch Annäherung – Überlegungen zu Kirchenbau und Malerei in Prag im Zeitalter der Konfessionalis- ierung”, Bohemia, xliv (2003), pp. 29 – 66. 8 Zoe Opačić maps this phenomenon for medieval