Albert Kutal (9 January 1904,

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

– 27 December 1976,

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

) 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 *Czech (surnam ...

art historian of

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

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 ar ...

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 František Kutal in the predominantly Catholic town of

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

(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 Porta coeli (, Latin: ''Heaven's Gate'') is a 13th-century convent located in Předklášteří, near Tišnov, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic. Situated in the valley of the Svratka River, this Cistercian convent was founded in 1233 by Qu ...

Tišnov Tišnov (; ) is a town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,200 inhabitants. Administrative division Tišnov consists of five municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 cens ...

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

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Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

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and

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

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 Czech art curators Czechoslovak historians Masaryk University alumni Herder Prize recipients {{Europe-art-historian-stub