Publications

HAĽÁK, Miroslav: Antropomorfní kód moderní krajinomalby / The Anthropomorphic Code of Modern Landscape Painting. In: HAĽÁK, Miroslav – HNOJIL, Adam: Sny o krajině. Dream of Landscape. Hluboká nad Vltavou, South Bohemian Gallery 2026, p. 9-57.

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Idealised notions of sublime nature and works of art depicting idyllic landscapes have largely shaped our understanding of 19th-century art. Yet these picturesque visions of dramatic coastlines, endless horizons, and richly coloured fields present a somewhat distorted picture, as they tend to romanticise the historical development of landscape painting without questioning it. The history of modern landscape painting is, in fact, far more complex, revealing a remarkable range of social factors that contributed to the emergence of new artistic styles and new ways of representing nature. While curating the exhibition Grow. The Tree in Art, for the Belvedere in Vienna in 2022, I was surprised to discover that the language editor found my reflections on the symbolic nature of the tree in art difficult to grasp. I therefore tried to explain the tree’s significance by referring to its role in the religious tradition.

Anthropomorphism has played a central role throughout the history of representing nature because it explicitly affirms humanity’s kinship with the vegetal, animal, inorganic, and elemental worlds. Through works structured by the anthropomorphic code, the relationship between the subject and objective reality becomes a tangible record of the social and ecological discourse of its time. Once equipped with the means to decipher this code, we also gain the tools to distinguish between creative, multilayered transformations of reality and manipulative strategies that empty form of meaning. To interpret the history of art solely through stylistic categories is to reduce some of the most authentic evidence of cultural development – evidence rooted in humanity’s unique capacity to create and understand multivalent symbols. These symbols express not only archaic myths, folk tales, and religious legends, but also issues of pressing contemporary relevance, including environmental protection. In the anthropomorphic animation of nature, we discover not merely a play of forms, but traces of humanity’s inner conflict over the way society relates to the natural world.

Ultimately, humanity’s impact on the natural world culminates not in anthropomorphic imagery, but in destructive self-centredness.