Moritz Thausing
Moritz (recte Moriz) Thausing (born June 3, 1838 in Tschischkowitz Castle in Bohemia , † August 11, 1884 in Leitmeritz ) was an Austrian art historian .
Life
The son of the official director of Tschischkowitz Castle began his academic career as a Germanist and historian. He first studied in Prague and in 1858 went to Vienna to the Austrian Institute for Historical Research. There he came into contact with Rudolf Eitelberger , who had held the first chair for art history at the University of Vienna since 1852 . Under his influence, Thausing turned to art research. In 1862 he got a job as a library assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna , where he also gave lectures on general world and cultural history.
In 1864 Eitelberger referred him to the Albertina Graphic Collection , which he headed from 1868, and from 1876 onwards formally with the rank of director. From 1873, also thanks to Eitelberger's intercession, he was an associate professor of art history at the university and was appointed second full professor in 1879.
Progressive mental illness overshadowed his final years. When he took over the interim management of the newly founded Istituto Austriaco di studi storici in Rome in 1883 , his health deteriorated drastically. After a temporary admission to a mental institution, he found the - probably wanted - death by drowning in the Elbe during a convalescence stay in his homeland.
Act
Methodologically, Thausing played a decisive role in the development of an autonomous art history. While his mentor Eitelberger had still sought a balance between historical research and aesthetic enjoyment of art in the spirit of historicism , Thausing demanded a complete separation of art history and aesthetics . The task of the art historian is solely to determine the facts that can be deduced from the work of art, not an evaluative taste judgment. The so-called “experimental method” of the Italian natural scientist and art connoisseur Giovanni Morelli , whom he revered as his “fratello in Raffaele” (brother in Raphael), seemed to him exemplary . He had developed a meticulous process to determine the artist from physiognomic detail forms in a painting. As inadequate as this approach was, it represented a first approach to comparative style analysis, which became the basis of modern art history. This step was finally taken by Thausing's students Franz Wickhoff and Alois Riegl , arguably the most important representatives of the Vienna School of Art History .
Works (selection)
- The natural sound system of human language . Leipzig 1863
- Notes on the Dürer's manuscripts in the British Museum . In: Yearbooks of Art History (A. von Zahn, ed.), Volume 1, Leipzig 1868, pp. 183-184 ( online ). (Commentary on Albert von Zahn's article: The Dürer Manuscripts of the British Museum , ibid, pp. 1–22, online ).
- Dürer's letters, diaries and rhymes , Vienna 1872
- The Votive Church in Vienna , Vienna 1879
- Le livre d'esquisses de JJ Callot , Vienna 1881
- Dürer. History of his life and his art , 2 vols., Leipzig 1876, ²1884
- Vienna Art Letters , Leipzig 1884
Literature (selection)
- Rudolf von Eitelberger: Nekrolog Moriz Thausing , in: Wiener Zeitung , August 26, 1884, p. 4 ff.
- Simon Laschitzer: Nekrolog Moriz Thausing , in: Art Chronicle . Supplement to the magazine for visual arts, 19th year, No. 45, 9 October 1884, column 749 ff.
- Theodor von Frimmel : Thausing, Moriz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 660-664.
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Thausing, Moriz . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 44th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1882, p. 182 ( digitized version ).
- Julius von Schlosser: The Vienna School of Art History , in: Communications of the Austrian Institute for Historical Research, Erg.Bd. 13, Innsbruck 1934
- Artur Rosenauer: Moriz Thausing and the Vienna School of Art History , in: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte , 36, 1983, pp. 135 ff.
Web links
- Literature by and about Moritz Thausing in the catalog of the German National Library
- Moritz Thausing at arthistoricum.net - digitized works in the themed portal "History of Art History"
Former chair (“Art History II”): Rudolf Eitelberger (1852–1885) | Alois Riegl (1897–1905) | Max Dvořák (1909–1921) | Julius von Schlosser (from 1922) | Hans Sedlmayr (from 1936) | Karl M. Swoboda (from 1946) | Otto Pächt (from 1963) | Hermann Fillitz (from 1974) | Hellmut Lorenz (from 1997) | Sebastian Schütze (from 2009)
Later chair (“Art History I”): Moritz Thausing (1873–1884) | Franz Wickhoff (1885–1909) | Josef Strzygowski (1909–1933) | Otto Demus (from 1963) | Günther Heinz (from 1976) | Friedrich Teja Bach (from 1994) | Sebastian Egenhofer (from 2016)
Further chairs and university professors: Otto Benesch (from 1948) | Fritz Novotny (from 1948) | Renate Wagner-Rieger (from 1964) | Gerhard Schmidt (from 1964) | Helmut Buschhausen (from 1975) | Artur Rosenauer (from 1976) | Deborah Klimburg-Salter (from 1996) | Michael Viktor Schwarz (from 1998) | Lioba Theis (from 2005) | Raphael Rosenberg (from 2009) | Julia Gelshorn (2010–2011) | Sebastian Egenhofer (2012–2013) | Markus Ritter (from 2012) | Noit Banai (from 2014) | Lukas Nickel (from 2016)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thausing, Moritz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Thausing, Moriz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian art historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 3, 1838 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tschischkowitz Castle, Leitmeritz , Bohemia |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 11, 1884 |
| Place of death | Leitmeritz |