Tableau Vivant and its Practice in the Czech Milieu of the Second Half of the 19th Century

The thesis explores the phenomenon of so-called living pictures, often internationally known under the French translation of the phrase - as tableaux vivants (in singular form a tableau vivant). It is a type of theatrical performance and a paratheatrical genre performed by participants in costumes who, for a short time, motionlessly maintain a certain position, so that the whole scene resembles a work of art - most often a picture, as the term suggests. As templates for the scene composition were selected famous paintings (contemporary audience then amused themselves by identifying them and by the illusion of the picture "brought to life", which the production evoked), but also sculptures; some scenes were designed from scratch, as in the case of so-called Apotheosis (a living picture meant for glorification of a certain personality) and various allegories, in the Czech milieu often with patriotic overtones. A living picture therefore had many forms, and also a variety of different functions - entertaining, aesthetic, communicating or for instance representational, which is associated with aristocratic families in particular and in our lands very considerably with the Sokol organization. Attention is focused on the "golden age" of living pictures, i.e. the 19th century, specifically in its second..