Monika Drlíková

Monika Drlíková

Monika Drlíková is an art historian who focuses on early modern art and its intersections with natural philosophy. During her studies of Art history at Masaryk University, she specialized in history of collecting Netherlandish, primarily Dutch art of the so-called Golden era, during the first half of the twentieth century in Bohemia and Moravia. She furthered her studies with Research Master Programme Art History of the Low Countries at Utrecht University, where she graduated in 2022 with cum laude. In her diploma thesis, she focused on images of insects made by Wenceslaus Hollar and their situation within the context of Antwerp artistic production. With armorial paintings of the Order of the Golden Fleece at St. Rumboldt Cathedral in Mechelen from 1491 as her main research component, she conducted her research internship at Museum Hof van Busleyden between years 2020 and 2021. From 2018 to 2021, she worked as a blog editor for the Centre for Early Modern Studies at Masaryk University in Brno. Since 2022, she has been collaborating with the National Gallery in Prague as a lecturer, mainly focused on the development and execution of programmes for high school students.

In her PhD project, From Kunstkammer to Anthropocene. Nature of Images Behind the Alps in the Mannerist Era, Monika Drlíková focuses on a specific type of mannerist collections, the so-called kunstkammers or cabinets of curiosities, and she investigates them against the background of the present condition of our planet in her mind. The core of her research presents questions regarding transformation and transmutation of (natural) matter, imitation and replication of nature and natural processes, and reflection on boundaries between the natural and the artificial and its impact upon the environment. Artisanal practice is investigated in relation to natural philosophy, including alchemy and other occult sciences. At the same time, physical image is not regarded as a mere illustration of already defined theses, but rather as an independent, nonverbal tool for both knowledge acquisition and production. As such, the project also aims to enrich the branch of the theory of the image focusing on image’s specific capabilities to produce, acquire and demonstrate knowledge.