Tag Archives: Art History

CEFRES Team

Stefaniia Demchuk – Research & CV

Spaces of Prayer and Sensory Experience: The Boim and Kampiany Chapels in Early Modern Lviv

Research Area 3: Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Contact: stephanierom07@gmail.com

Stefaniia Demchuk, an art historian and Associate Professor at the Department of Art History of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, joins CEFRES for the 2026–2027 academic year. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly journal Text and Image: Essential Problems in Art History and co-leader of the “Materialities” Working Group within the COST Action Print Culture and Public Spheres in Central Europe, 1500–1800. Her research focuses on early modern art and visual culture in Central and Eastern Europe, the historiography and theory of art, the circulation of artistic forms across cultural and confessional boundaries, and the relationship between images, materiality, and religious experience. Drawing on approaches from entangled and horizontal art history, intermediality studies, and sensory and material culture studies, her work seeks to situate the art of present-day Ukraine within wider European networks of exchange.

Her publications have addressed the reception of the Vienna School of Art History in Soviet and post-Soviet scholarship, the historiography of Mannerism, religious imagery and Eucharistic controversy during the Reformation, gastronomic motives in early modern Netherlandish art, and the decolonisation of Ukrainian art history. She is co-editor, with Illia Levchenko, of Entangled Art Histories in Ukraine (Routledge, 2025) and the author of Stillleben mit Agave: Alexis Gritchenko (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2024). Her current research also explores early modern devotional imagery and practices, Antwerp Mannerism, and the intersections between food, visual culture, and social history.

During her fellowship, she will develop the project Spaces of Prayer and Sensory Experience: The Boim and Kampiany Chapels in Early Modern Lviv. The project examines two major late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century chapels as spaces designed to shape devotional practice, sensory perception, and encounters between the living and the dead. It asks what visitors were expected to see and experience and how architecture, sculpture, inscriptions, light, colour, materials, textures, and devotional texts worked together to guide attention, movement, memory, and affect. Combining spatial and iconographic analysis with archival research, early modern descriptions of Lviv, and comparative examples from Western and Central Europe, the project places these monuments within the multicultural and multi-confessional environment of early modern Lviv and within broader networks through which Renaissance artistic and architectural forms circulated, were adapted, and acquired new local meanings.

CV

Education

2016: PhD in History, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

2012: MA in History, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

2010: BA in History, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Awards and research funding

2025: Max Weber Foundation International Research Award

2024–2025: Bibliographical Fellowship, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles

2024: Historians of Netherlandish Art Fellowship for a research stay in Brussels and Bruges

2023: Getty Library Research Grant, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

2023: Coimbra Group Research Fellowship, KU Leuven

2022–2024: Research Fellowship, Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Brno

2019: Joint Excellence in Science and Humanities Fellowship, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

Employment history

Since 2023: Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Since 2023: Part-time Lecturer, Kyiv School of Economics

2022–2024: Research Fellow, Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Brno

2017–2023: Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

2016–2017: Junior Research Fellow, Faculty of History, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Professional experience

Since 2026: Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly journal Text and Image: Essential Problems in Art History

Since 2024: Co-leader of Working Group 4, ‘Materialities’, COST Action CA23137, Print Culture and Public Spheres in Central Europe, 1500–1800

Since 2023: Teaching at the Kyiv School of Economics

International research experience

2024–2025: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles

2024: Research stay in Brussels and Bruges, supported by Historians of Netherlandish Art

2023: Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

2023: Department of Art History, KU Leuven

2022–2024: Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Brno

2019: Institute for Modern and Contemporary Historical Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

Selected publications

Demchuk, Stefaniia, and Illia Levchenko, eds. Entangled Art Histories in Ukraine. London and New York: Routledge, 2025.

Demchuk, Stefaniia. Stillleben mit Agave: Alexis Gritchenko. Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2024.

‘Words for Pictures: Ekphrasis as a Heuristic Tool in Alois Riegl’s Art History.’ Edgar Wind Journal 9 (2025): 74–88. https://doi.org/10.53245/EWJ-00048.

With Illia Levchenko. ‘Decolonizing Ukrainian Art History.’ Nationalities Papers (2024): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2024.58.

‘Food, Family, and the Reformation: From Family to Banquet Portrait in the Art of Early Modern Netherlands’ (in Ukrainian). Ukrainian Historical Review (2023), Vol. 2, 61 – 80.

With Illia Levchenko. ‘Ukrainian Baroque: Art, Myth, and National Identity.’ Histoire de l’art 91 (2023): 85–96.

‘The Mannerist “Revolution”, Dvořák and Soviet Art History.’ Journal of Art Historiography 25 (2021): 1–15.

‘The Influence of the Vienna School of Art History on Soviet and Post-Soviet Historiography: Bruegel’s Case.’ Journal of Art Historiography 23 (2020): 1–19.

‘Two Suppers: Illustrations by Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen to Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (1523) and the Eucharistic Controversy of the Early Reformation.’ Modus: Prace z historii sztuki 18 (2018): 35–48.

Non classé, Research Projects

Agency of the Presence and Absence of Religious Buildings in Europe

A project developed within CU-CNRS Tandem Program supported by Charles University, CNRS and CEFRES

Project principal investigators:
Anne FORNEROD (CNRS, University of Strasbourg / CEFRES)
Barbora SPALOVÁ (ISS FSV / CEFRES)

ANNOTATION Continue reading Agency of the Presence and Absence of Religious Buildings in Europe →

CEFRES Team

Dominika Drobná – Research & CV

“Theory and Practice of Architecture in Bratislava around 1800”

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Dominika Drobná is a PhD candidate at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. Her dissertation, titled Theory and Practice of Architecture in Bratislava around 1800, contributes to Research Area 3 at CEFRES.

The aim of the dissertation is to explore the relationship between architectural theory and practice in Bratislava between 1770 and 1830. The research began with a focus on the development of sacred architecture in western Slovakia during this period, particularly in the context of Theresian and Josephine reforms in the Church and education. These reforms significantly influenced architectural production and led to the discovery of a previously overlooked figure in architectural theory – Johann Nepomuk Schauff. Schauff worked for many years as a drawing teacher at the Normalschule in Bratislava, where he taught drawing to local craftsmen, including masons and stonemasons. These craftsmen increasingly participated in architectural design, particularly in religious and secular buildings, often in collaboration with Viennese architects. Schauff also developed his own theoretical ideas focused on the architecture of the Kingdom of Hungary and published several works in Bratislava related to this topic.

In addition to Schauff, the dissertation focuses on the work of architect Matthäus Walch, who was active in Bratislava especially during the 1770s. Walch played a key role in the construction of several aristocratic palaces, a theatre, and two Evangelical churches built even before the issuance of the 1781 Patent of Toleration.

The core objective of the dissertation is to address the theoretical and practical aspects of architecture – particularly sacred architecture – by analysing the work and ideas of these two important figures. It seeks to trace the stylistic development of architecture in Bratislava during a pivotal transition from the late Baroque to Classicism, and to demonstrate Bratislava’s significance as a secondary centre of architecture and art in the Habsburg monarchy and the Kingdom of Hungary.

The research methodology consists of several phases. The first involved heuristic and critical evaluation of existing literature. This was followed by in-depth analysis of primary historical sources, including archival documents, maps, architectural plans, and historical depictions, especially prints. Special attention is given to Schauff’s theoretical texts, whose interpretation helps illuminate broader architectural discourse around 1800.

The material basis of the study is formed by three key sacred buildings in Bratislava: The Large Evangelical Church (1774–1776), The Small Evangelical Church (1776–1777), and The Roman Catholic Church of St. Ladislaus (1830–1831). Notably, the two Evangelical churches were constructed before the Patent of Toleration in 1781. After a comprehensive analysis of the selected objects, the characteristic features of the architecture of the given period and region will be determined by comparison, and their development and style will be defined. In the final phase, I’m focusing on interpreting the acquired knowledge about sacred architecture. The aim is to highlight the broader context of the issue under investigation within the architecture of the selected period, not only in the territory of present-day Slovakia, but also in the context of the situation in Hungary, the Habsburg Monarchy and Europe.

Education

  • From 2022 till present: PhD. candidate, Art studies, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava
  • 2021–2024: Master, Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno
  • 2019–2021: Master, Art History, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno
  • 2016–2019: Bachelor, Art History, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava

Recent publications

  • Šintava a Sereď: premeny stredovekého hradu na renesančnú pevnosť a klasicistický kaštieľ: doklady vo svetle poznatkov z oblasti archeológie, dejín architektúry a pamiatkovej starostlivosti (Šintava and Sereď: transformation of a medieval castle into a Renaissance fortress and a Classicist manor house : evidence in the light of knowledge in the field of archaeology, history of architecture and monument care). In: Studia archaeologica Brunensia, roč. 29, č. 1, 2024, s. 109–151.
  • Vila pro stavitele (Villa for the Builder). In: Tajemství české minulosti, č. 103, 2024, s. 24–27.
  • Bratislavskí stavební majstri a ich vplyv na premeny mesta v druhej polovici 18. storočia (Bratislava’s Master Builders and Their Influence on the Transformation of the City in the Second Half of the 18th Century). In: Umělec a město: sborník příspěvků z odborné konference. Brno 2023, s. 91–104. ISBN 978-80-88145-69-1.
  • Kontexte der Kunst um 1800 aus dem Gebiet der heutigen Slowakei (Contexts of Art around 1800 from the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia). In: Internationales Doktorand/innen Forum Kunstgeschichte des östlichen Europas [elektronický dokument]: Beiträge / Papers 2023. Berlin 2023, s. 1–2.
  • Možnosti inšpirácie architektúrou (Posibilities of Inspiration through Architecture). In: Prostor Zlín, roč. XXX, č. 4, 2023, s. 43–47.
  • Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch a jeho stavebná činnosť v Bratislave (Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch and his building activities in Bratislava). In: Kolbiarz Chmelinová, Katarína – Beňová, Katarína: Umenie a umělci v meste okolo roku 1800. Bratislava 2023, s. 86–112. ISBN 978-80-8127-388-9.
  • Národní divadlo Nitranské župy (National Theatre of the Nitra County). In: Opuscula historiae artium, roč. 70, č.2, 2021, s. 142–153.

Participation in conferences

  • November 2024: “National Styles in Architecture: The Formation of the Hungarian National Columns Order in the European Context“, paper presented in the conference Ex Arte: Fortresses, Bridges and Borders, Masaryk University, Brno
  • October 2023: “Johann Nepomuk Schauff and the Study of the Hungarian National Style in Architecture“, paper presented in the conference Ex Arte: From Material to Theory, Palacký University, Olomouc
  • October 2023: “Bratislava’s Master Buliders and Their Influence on the Transformation of the City“, paper presented in the conference The Artist and the City, Museum of Kroměříž
  • May 2023: “Contexts of Art around 1800 from the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia“, short paper presented in the conference VIII. Internationales Doktorand*innenforum Kunstgeschichte des östlichen Europas, Humboldt-University, Berlin
  • November 2022: “Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch and his building Activities in Bratislava“, paper presented in the conference Art and Artists in the City around 1800, Comenius University, Bratisava
CEFRES Team

Helga Mitterbauer – Research and CV

Néo-baroque in Central Europe: Literature, Theatre, Cinema, and Other Arts

Research area: 1

Helga Mitterbauer, full professor of German literature at the Université libre de Bruxelles, is joining CEFRES from January to March 2025 thanks to the ‘Visiting scholars’ international mobility support programme funded by the CNRS. Previously, she was a visiting professor at a number of universities, including the University of Alberta (2010-2015) and ELTE Budapest. She taught at the University of Graz (1993-2013) where she habilitated in 2008.

She was chair of the coordinating committee of the ICLA CHLEL book series (2022-2024; Amsterdam, Benjamins) and is currently co-editor of the book series Forum: Österreich (Frank & Timme, Berlin).

Her project Neo-baroque in Central Europe focuses on the revival of baroque stylistic elements in literature, theatre, film and other arts in Germany and Central Europe. The aim is to study the extent to which this historical perspective is still valid today. Part of the project is to investigate how historical changes in society and power politics are reflected in literature and art, which art forms are used in response or to what extent art and literature facilitate the accumulation of power (the emergence of private galleries and libraries).

link to the full list of publications here.

CEFRES Team

Vera Guseynova – Research & CV

“The International Exposure of Russian Art in 1957-1991: Social and Historical Analysis of Art Transfers and Circulations, the Case of Soviet Non Official Art””

Contact: vera.guseynova[@]ehess.fr

Research Areas 1 & 2

My doctoral research revolves around the international acknowledgment of a localized artistic movement, specifically focusing on unofficial Russian art from the latter half of the 20th century, which defied the Soviet doctrine of socialist realism. Through an analysis of its artistic and market valuation process, I explore four pivotal reception and dissemination hubs: French, German, Anglo-Saxon, and East European contexts. Leveraging a database of visual artists who challenged state-sanctioned norms of creativity in the USSR during the 1950s and the 1960s, my research work delves into the individual and collective trajectories of these artists. Moreover, it underscores the pivotal role played by a diverse cohort of actors, both domestic and foreign, whose interest in this art emerged during the early stages of the thaw period, actively contributing to its dissemination and legitimization. Continue reading Vera Guseynova – Research & CV →