Uncovering the Forgotten Frescoes of Medieval Bohemia (Chisholm & O’Mara)
- mmapodcast1
- Oct 25
- 2 min read
The colorful and monumental fourteenth-century frescoes of Bohemian church interiors have received very little scholarly attention, and many remain completely unknown today. Yet the wall paintings have played major roles in the creation of national(ist) art historical narratives, and they offer a rare chance to examine how medieval frescoes operated within their original architectural contexts. In this episode, Reed O’Mara speaks with art historican Isabelle Chisholm on the long lives of these frescoes, discussing their medieval viewership and the reason for their relative obscurity.
Figure 1: View of interior of Church of St James the Great (Slavětín) with fourteenth-century wall paintings decorating nave and chancel area behind altar. Photo: Isabelle Chisholm
Figure 2: Fresco cycle including The Dormition of the Virgin featuring the Virgin Mary wearing a crown in most episodes of her life, latter half of fourteenth century (Church of St James the Great, Slavětín). Photo: Isabelle Chisholm
Figure 3: The Dormition of the Virgin, fourteenth century, wall painting (in chancel area at St Nicholas Church, Starý Svojanov). Photo: Isabelle Chisholm
Isabelle Chisholm is a medieval art historian who specializes in the art of Central Europe and predominantly the Bohemian Kingdom.
Reed O’Mara is a PhD candidate and Mellon Foundation Fellow in the joint art history program between Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art. She is the 2025–27 Samuel H. Kress Institutional Fellow at the Zentralinstitute für Kunstgeschichte in Munich. Reed's research focuses on the arts of medieval Germany, and her primary research interests lie in Jewish illuminated manuscripts and Gothic architectural sculpture. Her dissertation considers the complex histories of Hebrew and Yiddish in late medieval Europe through an examination of text and image relationships in Jewish illuminated manuscripts and Christian prints from Ashkenaz and Italy, ca. 1200-1500.
References/Further Reading
Paul Binski, Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation (London: British Museum Press, 1996).
Barbara Drake Boehm; Jiří Fajt (eds.), Prague: The Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437 (New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Museum of Art/New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005).
Lucy Donkin, Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages (Ithaca [New York]: Cornell University Press, 2021).
Ondřej Faktor; Petr Pavelec, Středověké nástěnné malby na jihuČech I. [Medieval Wall Paintings in Southern Bohemia I.] (NPÚ, ÚPS v Českých Budějovicích, 2025).
Ingrid Flor, ‘Das Letzte Gebet Mariae - Eine Prager Bild-Invention’ in Markéta Jarošová; Jiří Kuthan; Stefan Scholz (eds.), Prag und die Grossen Kulturzentren Europas in der Zeit der Luxemburger (1310-1437) (Prague, 2008), pp. 733-750.
Ivan Foletti; Adrien Palladino (eds.), Inventing Medieval Czechoslovakia 1918-1968: Between Slavs, Germans, and Totalitarian Regimes (Masaryk University Press, 2019).
Beth Williamson, ‘Sensory Experience in Medieval Devotion: Sound and Vision, Invisibility and Silence’, Speculum 88.1 (2013), pp. 1-44.