Johann Rudolf Rahn

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Johann Rudolf Rahn (born April 24, 1841 in Zurich ; † April 28, 1912 there ) was a Swiss art historian. He is considered to be one of the founders of monument preservation and art research and history in Switzerland and is often referred to as the "father of Swiss art history".

Johann Rudolf Rahn at the age of seventy

Life

youth

The Postgasse in Winterthur. Drawing by the thirteen-year-old, made in 1854 when his grandmother visited

Johann Rudolf Rahn was born at Stüssihofstatt 14 in the old town of Zurich. His parents were the pharmacist Johann Heinrich Rahn and his wife Maria, née Ziegler from Winterthur. The mother did not recover from the birth and died shortly after Rahn's second birthday on July 2, 1843.

The boy was brought to his grandmother Dorothea Ziegler-Rahn in Winterthur , where he spent a few carefree months in the house "Zum Thiergarten" at Marktgasse 14. After 1844 he spent his childhood with the family of an aunt on his mother's side; Margaretha and her husband Johannes Steiger at the fruit market in Herisau. After elementary school, Rahn attended the private Walser institute. During this time Rahn began to draw; he recorded observations from his surroundings on slates and, more rarely, on paper.

At the age of 14 he returned to Zurich in 1855, not least because of poor academic performance. In Zurich he came under the care of the teacher and pastor Heinrich Cramer. Cramer lived on Rennweg , under the same roof as the archaeologist Ferdinand Keller . Since he was not accepted by the industrial school , he received tutoring. In 1856 he was accepted and started school. However, Rahn felt out of place as a student. He spent almost more time with Ferdinand Keller and, under his supervision, made drawings for the antiquarian society he founded . Rahn left school in 1858.

Rahn as a budding businessman in 1858

Education

On the advice of his guardian Eduard Meyer, Rahn began training as a businessman in the Zuppinger silk shop on Stadelhoferstrasse on May 3, 1858. In addition, he learned Latin with great zeal. It was Meyer who discovered Rahn's talent for drawing. On January 4, 1860, at Meyer's request, the umbrella bailiff decided to propose Rahn for a degree. After two stays in Yverdon, Rahn began studying art history at the Polytechnic and the University of Zurich in the winter semester of 1860/61 . At the same time he was preparing for the Matura exam, which he passed in 1862.

Rahn's teachers were among others Wilhelm Lübke , Gottfried Semper and Georg Lasius (1835–1928). In addition to modeling lessons, Rahn also attended courses in literature on Swiss history with Hermann Köchly . In addition, Rahn continued to work and draw intensively in the office of the Antiquarian Society in the Helmhaus . He sublet lived with the German mathematics professor Karl Heinrich Gräffe in an old house directly above the Fröschengraben . In 1862 Rahn joined the Zofingia student union . Here he met Gerold Meyer von Knonau , who would become a lifelong friend. It later emerged that Rahn's great-grandfather and Meyer's grandfather were brothers.

In 1863 Rahn completed a study visit to Bonn with Meyer von Knonau, where he attended lectures by the art historian Anton Springer . In 1864/65 he stayed at the University of Berlin , where he befriended Julius Friedländer . He attended less lectures, instead he worked on research into the construction of domes, visited museums and deepened his studies of medieval architecture.

Professional activity and marriage

In the autumn of 1866 Rahn traveled to Dresden , where he finished his dissertation. He returned to Zurich for his doctoral examination and was appointed doctor of the Faculty of Philosophy I on October 3, 1866. He then went on a trip to Rome and Ravenna . "A visit to Ravenna" with drawings and descriptions was Rahn's first major work, which he published after completing his dissertation. It was published in the first volume of "Jahrbücher der Kunstwissenschaft" in 1868 and was well received by the professional world.

Caroline Rahn
Landhaus Waid 1860; Drawing by Caroline Rahn

On September 7, 1867, Rahn became engaged to Caroline Meyer von Knonau, who was four years his junior and who he met in 1855 when he was fourteen, at the “Zur lower Waid” country house. Caroline Meyer was the daughter of the city clerk of Zurich Johann Conrad Meyer von Knonau and a cousin of his friend Gerold. The wedding took place on September 15, 1868 in the church of Thalwil. The honeymoon went to Venice. Caroline supported and encouraged her husband's work and, under his guidance, developed into a gifted draftswoman. The couple lived at Tannenstrasse 17 in the university district in Zurich in a former apartment of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer , which led to a lifelong friendship between the two men interested in art.

In the autumn of 1870 the couple moved to the "Talhof" with their little daughter Caroline; in the same year he was appointed associate professor for art history at the University of Zurich ; He became a full professor in 1878. In 1873 the second daughter Marie was born. Rahn gave four weekly lectures at a fee of thirty francs and devoted himself to his journalistic activities.

Rahn 1877, painting by Ernst Stückelberg

In 1876 he and his family moved into their own house at Talacker 23, which was built in the style of a Roman palace based on his own designs. The couple spent the summer at the “Zur lower Waid” estate, where Rahn also used to invite his students after their semester excursion.

Also in 1876 was Rahn's main work, the 868 page history of the fine arts in Switzerland from the earliest times to the end of the Middle Ages. The work moved Rahn into the center of scientific and social interest. He was invited to lectures at home and abroad and well-known personalities such as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, the German art historian Alfred Woltmann and the painter Ernst Stückelberg visited him. After 1882, Rahn was also professor of art history at the Zurich Polytechnic. Together with Heinrich Angst and Zeller-Werdmüller, Rahn pursued the project of founding a national museum in Zurich.

Commemorative medal from 1911

After the death of his wife, his younger daughter Marie and her family lived with Rahn; he even tolerated his granddaughter in his study when he received visitors. In the last ten years of his life, Rahn published important works, for example on the Dominican convent Töss and the Tarasp Castle , wrote numerous newspaper articles and reports on finds.

On his 70th birthday, the volume "Sketches and Studies by JR Rahn" was published, edited by his friends and students. He was also presented with a commemorative medal made by the Lucerne medalist Jean Kaufmann based on a drawing by Robert Durrer .

In 1912 Rahn resigned all teaching posts in order to devote himself only to written work from then on. In the spring he had to undergo cataract surgery. On April 28, 1912, Johann Rudolf Rahn succumbed to cancer.

family

Caroline Rahn helped her husband with numerous correspondence, often accompanied him to appraisals and inventories, and was an attentive host for the numerous visitors Rahn received. She also often colored his drawings.

During a spa stay in Baden-Baden, she suffered a stroke and from then on was dependent on care. She died in Zurich in 1909. The daughter Caroline Rahn (1869–1931) was married first to the lawyer Heinrich Zeller and then to Andreas Walder from Hombrechtikon. Marie Rahn (1873–1933) married a lawyer from Lucerne who was the son of one of Rahn's friends, the Lucerne art collector Jost Meyer-am-Rhyn (1834–1898). Caroline had two daughters, Erika and Kitty Keller; Marie a daughter, Gabrielle Meyer.

Works and meaning

Rahn's work “History of the Fine Arts in Switzerland from the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Ages” from 1876 was the first standard work on early Swiss art history. The volume «Sketches and Studies by JR Rahn», published on his 70th birthday, is a cross-section of his work; starting with drawings from his youth in Herisau, through work in the Zurich area, to his numerous travels at home and abroad.

Other major works by Rahn are the “Art and Hiking Studies from Switzerland” and “Sketches and Studies” from 1911. In three dozen so-called “Bojocc” books, Rahn sketched numerous buildings and architectural details in addition to billing of guest houses, dimensions and condition of buildings. These notebooks are pervaded by cartoons the size of a thumb.

Rahn was a sought-after scientific expert for the restoration of various buildings. He participated in the restoration of the Great Minster in Zurich, the Wettingen Monastery and Chillon Castle . In addition, he created cantonal statistics on Swiss cultural monuments. In 1880 he was one of the founders of the Society for Swiss Art History , to which he made himself available as Vice President. Rahn was also instrumental in founding the Swiss National Museum in Zurich in 1890.

In 1909 Richard Kissling created portrait caricatures of Heinrich Angst , Hans Konrad Pestalozzi , Zeller-Werdmüller and Rahn for the weapons hall of the Swiss National Museum .

Rahn's most important students include the art historians Carl Brun , Josef Zemp , Fritz von Harck and Samuel Guyer, as well as Ernst Alfred Stückelberg , the son of his friend Ernst Stückelberg. Rahn recorded all the lectures and the names of his students from eighty semesters in a notebook. He gave his first lecture to three people, two of whom he knew.

The estate of Johann Rudolf Rahn is kept in the graphic collection of the Zurich Central Library.

Publications (selection)

  • About the origin and development of the Christian central and dome building. Seemann, Leipzig 1866, ( archive.org )
  • A visit to Ravenna . In: Year books of art history (A. von Zahn, ed.); Volume 1. Leipzig 1868, pp. 163-182 ( online ) and pp. 273-321 ( online ).
  • The legacy of antiquity. Lecture given in the Rathhaussaale in Zurich on May 3, 1871, Benno Schwabe, Basel 1872 ( doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-17521 )
  • The biblical ceiling paintings in the church of Zillis in the canton of Graubündten. In: Mittheilungen der antiquarian society in Zurich , Volume 17, Issue 6. Höhr, Zurich 1872, pp. 103–121 ( archive.org )
  • History of the fine arts in Switzerland from the earliest times to the end of the Middle Ages. Hans Staub, Zurich 1876 ( digitized Heidelberg University Library )
  • The Psalterium aureum by Sanct Gallen: A contribution to the history of Carolingian miniature painting. Zollikofer'sche Buchdruckerei, St. Gallen 1878 ( archive.org )
  • On the history of Renaissance architecture in Switzerland: the afterlife of the Gothic. Spemann, Stuttgart 1881 ( doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-7439 )
  • Art and traveling studies from Switzerland. Georg Paul Faesy, Vienna 1883 ( archive.org )
  • History of Chillon Castle. Communications from the antiquarian society in Zurich. Volume 22, Issue 3, Orell Füssli, Zurich 1887 ( urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb11129351-8 )
  • The Swiss glass paintings in the Vincent collection in Constanz. In: Communications from the antiquarian society in Zurich , Volume 22, Issue 6. Hiersemann, Leipzig 1890 ( archive.org )
  • (with Ernst Haffter) The medieval architecture and art monuments of the Canton of Thurgau. Huber, Frauenfeld 1899 ( digitized BSB Munich )

gallery

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Rudolf Rahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Swiss National Museum in Zurich
  2. ^ Portrait caricatures by Richard Kissling


personal data
SURNAME Rahn, Johann Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss art historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1912
Place of death Zurich