German art history and scientific thought : beyond formalism

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"A fresh contribution to the ongoing debate between Kunstwissenschaft (scientific study of art) and Kunstgeschichte (art history), this essay collection explores how German-speaking art historians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century self-consciously generated a field of study. Prominent North American and European scholars provide new insights into how a mixing of diverse methodologies took place, in order to gain a more subtle and comprehensive understanding of how art history became institutionalized and legitimized in Germany. One common assumption about early art-historical writing in Germany is that it depended upon a simplistic and narrowly-defined formalism. This book helps to correct this stereotype by demonstrating the complexity of discussion surrounding formalist concerns, and by examining how German-speaking art historians borrowed, incorporated, stole, and made analogies with concepts from the sciences in formulating their methods. In focusing on the work of some of the well-known 'fathers' of the discipline - such as Alois Riegl and Heinrich Wölfflin - as well as on lesser-known figures, the essays in this volume provide illuminating, and sometimes surprising, treatments of art history's prior and understudied interactions with a wide range of scientific orientations, from psychology, sociology, and physiognomics to evolutionism and comparative anatomy"--pub. desc.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• ISBN: 9781409440239 ; 1409440230
• Dimensions: 24 cm
• Extent: XI, 194 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Ill. ; Literaturangaben

Classification and Topics

• Keyword: Geschichte 1890-1950 ; Kunstgeschichtsschreibung ; Kunstwissenschaft ; Methode ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Farnham, Surrey, England UK, Burlington, Vt.
• (who): Ashgate
• (when): 2012
• Contributor: Frank, Mitchell B. ; Adler, Dan

Further information

• Table of contents: https://d-nb.info/1044939737/04
• Rights: Bei diesem Objekt liegt nur das Inhaltsverzeichnis digital vor. Der Zugriff darauf ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 11.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET