The Centre for Early Modern Studies at the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno announces a new scholarship programme in memory of Jarmila Vacková (1930-2011).
This fellowship program focuses on research questions about Central European art and visual culture from 1400 to 1900. Possible topics include traditional areas of interest as well as new challenges, such as global perspectives, eco-art history, and post-colonial discourse.
The program is intended primarily for junior scholars (within 10 years of completing PhD) and is announced as a short fellowship lasting 30 days. The financial support for this period amounts to €2,000, covering travel and accommodation costs in Brno. The Fellow will receive a desk in the department office, library access, and academic support. Additionally, upon agreement, the Fellow may utilize the facilities of the Art History Department for an extended period, although financial support will not be provided for this additional time.
Residencies must take place between September 15, 2025, and March 15, 2026. It is the Fellow’s responsibility to actively participate in the academic life of the Department of Art History, deliver a public lecture on a topic of their choice, and commit to publishing a paper based on their research during the fellowship journal Opuscula Historiae Artium in one year after the Fellowship.
A complete application includes a proposal of the research topic (max 300 words), a short CV and a bibliography. The deadline for applications is June 30, 2025. Applications should be submitted to Tomáš Valeš, head of the Centre for Early Modern Studies: tomas.vales@phil.muni.cz
Jarmila Vacková (*1930 Topolčany, Slovakia – † 2011 Praha, Czechia)
An art historian who for many years has been working on paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries in the Netherlands and in Central Europe (e.g. Brueghel family, Jan van Eyck) with great systematicity and consistent expert acrimony. In her work, she has more than once touched upon the relationship between the work of art and the social situation of the time. On several occasions, she has also focused on the general methodological problems of our discipline.
Between 1949 and 1953, she studied art history at the University of Brno and, to some extent, belongs to the framework of the „Brno School of Art History“. She then worked in the gallery at the Chateau in Kroměříž, whose collections include a lot of Dutch and Flemish masters in addition to one famous Titian. From 1959 until the end of her career, she worked at the Institute of Theory and History of Art of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague. Her main field of research became (a) the art of Dutch painters of the 15th and 16th centuries, (b) the court art of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Prague, and (c) the reflection on contemporary methodological issues in art history.
However, her life and work were not just a testimony to her abilities as an art historian but also to her moral integrity, which was essential and rare during the communist era.