Topic
BELLUM ET ARTES. Cooperation and exhibition project
Together with twelve partners from seven countries, the research and exhibition project examines and presents the effects of the Thirty Years' War on the arts, artists and their patrons in Central Europe.
The international cooperation and exhibition project (2021–2027) focuses on the impact of the Thirty Years’ War on artists and the arts in Central Europe. Particular attention is paid to the development and transmission of regional narratives about the war, the migration of artists and relocation of artworks, systematic plundering, art as spoils, and the legal frameworks involved. Another focus lies on the study of war-related displaced art and the contemporary handling of former war booty from the Thirty Years’ War.
The GWZO and the Dresden State Art Collections collaboration builds on the GWZO research project Bellum, Artes et Commercia (2014–2019). It encompasses a series of exhibitions each addressing different thematic priorities, preparatory research, and conferences to be held through 2027.
Further partners include the National Gallery Prague, the National Museum in Gdańsk, the Institute of Art History and the Museum of the University of Wrocław, the Silesian Museum in Görlitz, the Complesso Museale Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, the Tyrolean State Museum Innsbruck, the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, Livrustkammaren Stockholm, the House of European History Brussels, and the Olomouc Museum of Art.
The project is accompanied by an essay volume.
Exhibitions:
BELLUM & ARTES will be shown in exhibitions (2023-2026), each with a different focus, in Prague, Innsbruck, Görlitz, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Brussels, Stockholm and Olomouc.
- 2024-2025 | BELLUM & ARTES. Europe and the Thirty Years' War
Brussels, House of European History, April 27, 2024 - January 12, 2025
(Concept and curation: Susanne Jaeger (GWZO) and Claudia Brink (SKD) in cooperation with the HdEG team) - 2023 | BELLUM & ARTES - casus Silesiae. Sztuki piękne i religia na Śląsku podczas wojen w XVII w.
Museum of the University of Wrocław, May 17 - September 2023
(Concept of the University of Wroclaw) - 2021 | BELLUM & ARTES. Saxony and Central Europe in the Thirty Years' War
Dresden, Royal Palace, July 8 - October 4, 2021
(Concept and curation: Susanne Jaeger in cooperation with Claudia Brink, Theda Jürjens, Marius Winzeler, Holger Schuckelt, Lenka Nemravová and Dirk Syndram)
Further events:
- a round table at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, dedicated to museums in dialog and opening a discussion on new approaches to dealing with looted art from the Thirty Years' War
- an international conference at the Prado National Museum in Madrid on a key work from the Thirty Years' War in Central Europe, the painting by Bartholomew Strobel "The Banquet of Herod and the Beheading of John the Baptist" (1635-1640)
A database-based and geo-referenced tool
It was developed in cooperation with the SKD and the HTW Dresden at the GWZO and serves the joint research, documentation and interactive visualization in the context of the exhibitions of artist migration and translocation of looted art in Europe.