Albert Kutal (9 January 1904,

Hranice na Moravě Hranice may refer to places in the Czech Republic: *Hranice (České Budějovice District), a municipality and village in the South Bohemian Region *Hranice (Cheb District), a town in the Karlovy Vary Region *Hranice (Přerov District), a town in ...

– 27 December 1976,

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

art historian of

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The ...

n descent who established classifying principles of

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Gothic sculpture Gothic sculpture was a sculpture style that flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages, from about mid-12th century to the 16th century,The chronology of the period varies significantly according to the source consulted evolving from Romanesque s ...

as one of the first to study and analyse the medieval art of Bohemia and Moravia, and the influence upon it of Southern European

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

. Kutal were influential in the development of formal analysis in art history in the early 20th century. His magnum opus, still consulted, is ''Gothic Art in Bohemia and Moravia'' (published in English translation in 1971).

Origins and career

Kutal was born into the family of state

geodesist Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equival ...

František Kutal in the predominantly Catholic town of

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(in the sub-region of Záhoří, today in the Czech Republic).Personal profile The Brno encyclopedia (in Czech)
/ref> He graduated from secondary school in 1923 and went on to attend the University of Brno (1923-1928), where he was a student of Eugen Dostál and wrote his dissertation on the Romanesque and Gothic sculpture in the arch of the Porta coeli Convent in

Tišnov Tišnov (; german: Tischnowitz) is a town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,200 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Hajánky, Hájek, Jamné and Pejškov are administrative parts ...

, Moravia. He taught at Brno, and briefly lectured in

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Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic c ...

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Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

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Works

*"Quelques remarques sur la sculpture gothique en Boheme", in ''Actes du XIX. Congres international d'histoire de l'art'' (Paris, 1959), pp. 100–104. *''České gotické sochařstvi, 1350–1450'' (Prague, 1962) *"La 'Belle Madone' de Budapest" in Bulletin du Muse'e Hongrois des Beaux-Arts 23 (1963), pp.2I-40. *''Gothic Art in Bohemia and Moravia'', translated by Till Gottheiner (London, 1971)

References

1904 births 1976 deaths People from Hranice (Přerov District) People from the Margraviate of Moravia Czech art historians European art curators Czechoslovak historians Masaryk University alumni Herder Prize recipients {{Europe-art-historian-stub