New Patrons of Art: A Presentation of the Support for the Arts by the Businessmen in Brno and Vilnius Press in the First Half of the 19th Century.
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | The Involvement of Businessmen in Local and Regional Public Life in Central Europe 1800-1914 : contributions for the XVth World Economic History Congress in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 3 to 7 August 2009 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | History |
| Keywords | elite socialisation, businessmen, charity, art patronage |
| Description | The paper analyses the reports on cultural events in Vilnius and Brno press as the field of elite socialisation and particularly the discursive presentation of the businessmen, who participated in collective cultural events. The situation of a small capital town allows observing and explaining the strong influence of the models of aristocratic self-presentation on the self-presentation of the pretenders to the new elites. Dominant was the aristocratic imperative to engage unselfishly for the public goals of charity, spread of civilisation (and cultivated taste for art) and imperial welfare. In the presentation of the contributions of non-nobles, the virtue of unselfish work was certainly dominant against the (artistic) quality of the production. Nevertheless, the very chances to appear publicly in collective cultural events, by the side of and according to the example of aristocrats, promoted the idea of meritocratic elite and opened the field for the competition and compromises of the old and new elites. |