STŘEDOVĚK (JINAK) TRVÁ
Do monuments belong exclusively to the past? Is it possible to perceive medieval artifacts as a testimony
of the “dark ages” or do they give us an insight into the diversity of the surrounding
world? And what can they tell us about today’s world here and now? How is history being manipulated
and do the humanities and social sciences stand a chance in modern, hyper-technological society? Not
only these but also other questions will be presented by art historian Ivan Foletti and
archaeologist Jiří Macháček in the new podcast of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies.
Prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur ès Lettres studied Art History at Université de Lausanne in
Switzerland and received his habilitation in the same field at Masaryk University in Brno. He
specializes in the art historiography of Byzantium and the study of the art of Milan, Rome, and
Constantinople in the late antique and early medieval periods. In addition, he is interested in
using social and anthropological approaches to investigate the impact of the migration period on the
development of art in the Mediterranean region. As an invited professor, he taught at the
universities of Fribourg, Lausanne, Helsinki, Naples, Padua, Poitiers, Prague, and Venice. He is
a head of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies, a research institute at the Seminar of Art History of
the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University.
Prof. Mgr. Jiří Macháček, Ph.D. studied archaeology at Masaryk University in Brno. He has held
academic fellowships at universities in Vienna, Bamberg, Frankfurt am Main, Göttingen, and
Ljubljana. He focuses on the early Middle Ages and the methodology of archaeology. Since 1998 he has
been leading research at the Institute of Archaeology and Museology of the Faculty of Arts of
Masaryk University in the Great Moravian Pohansko near Breclav. He has been involved in many
groundbreaking archaeological excavations in recent years, such as the discovery of a bone from the
year 600 CE engraved with Old Germanic runes.
PODCAST IS AVAIBLE ON THE FOLLOWING PLATFORMS:
We would like to thank the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University and the Zezula Auction House for their support.
