Rudolf Wittkower
Rudolf J. Wittkower (born June 22, 1901 in Berlin ; † October 11, 1971 in New York ) was a British art historian trained in Germany .
Life
Wittkower's father, Henry Wittkower, was a British man who lived in Germany. Rudolf initially studied architecture in Berlin for a year before he decided to study art history with Heinrich Wölfflin at the University of Munich . Wittkower couldn't get along with Wölfflin and returned to Berlin to study with Adolph Goldschmidt . Attending a seminar with the orientalist and archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld aroused his interest in the art of the Orient . Wittkower's dissertation was about Domenico Morone .
In 1923 he went as assistant to Ernst Steinmann at the Bibliotheca Hertziana to Rome to assist in the completion of him Michelangelo - Bibliography to help. He stayed there until 1927 and wrote several articles for the General Lexicon of Visual Artists . In Italy he also met Aby Warburg , who invited him to Hamburg to look through the Warburg library. The visit there in 1928 marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship with Erwin Panofsky , who was able to win him over to iconology . Wittkower then worked at the University of Berlin and from 1932 at the University of Cologne .
He was dismissed as a Jew for racist reasons in 1933 after power was handed over to the National Socialists . He went to London and worked at the Warburg Institute until 1956 . In 1949, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism was his major work. At the same time, he received a professorship at the Slade School of Art , which mainly consisted of supervising dissertations.
In 1954 Wittkower was a visiting professor at Harvard University for a year . Two years later he moved to the United States and became a professor in the Department of Art History and Archeology at Columbia University in New York. In 1958 Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750 was published , his best-selling book, which was also awarded several prizes. In 1959 Wittkower was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1969 he retired as Avalon Foundation Professor Emeritus of Art History and returned to England. There he worked at Cambridge University as a Slade Professor of Fine Art until his death in 1971. Since 1958 he was a member ( fellow ) of the British Academy .
Fonts (selection)
See Donald M. Reynolds: The writings of Rudolf Wittkower. A bibliography . Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1989.
- Monographs
- with Heinrich Brauer : Drawings by Gianlorenzo Bernini (= Roman Researches of the Bibliotheca Hertziana 9-10). 2 volumes, H. Keller, Berlin 1931.
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Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism . London 1949.
- Basics of architecture in the age of humanism . 2nd edition Dtv, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-423-04412-8 .
- Art and Architecture in Italy. 1600-1750 . Yale University Press, New Haven 1999 (EA Harmondsworth 1958)
- The early baroque. 1600-1625 . 1999, ISBN 0-300-07939-7 .
- The high baroque. 1625-1675 . 1999, ISBN 0-300-07940-0 .
- The late baroque. 1675-1750 . 1999, ISBN 0-300-07941-9 .
- with Margot Wittkower : Born under Saturn. The character and conduct of artists . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1963.
- Artist, outsider to society . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1965.
- Bernini. The sculptor of the Roman Baroque . London 1966, 4th edition Phaidon Press, London 2001, ISBN 0-7148-3715-6 .
- East-West in Art. Patterns in cultural and aesthetic relationships University Press, Bloomington, Ind. 1966.
- Sculpture. Processes and Principles . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1986 (reprint of New York 1977 edition).
- The collected essays of Rudolf Wittkower . Thames & Hudson, London 1975/78
- Studies in the Italian baroque, Vol. 1 . 1975.
- Studies in the Italian baroque, Vol. 2 . 1975.
- Allegory and the Migration of Symbols . 1977.
- Idea and image, vol. 1 . 1978.
- Idea and image, Vol. 2 , 1978.
- Essays
- Articles in the Journal of the Warburg Institute from 1937
- Marco Polo and the pictorial tradition of the novels of the east . In: Étienne Balazs (ed.): Oriente Poliano . Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Orienta, Rome 1957.
literature
- Rudolf Wittkower . In: Metzler Kunsthistoriker Lexikon. 200 portraits of German-speaking authors from 4 centuries . 2nd edition, Metzler, Stuttgart 2007, pp. 512-515.
- Douglas Fraser (Ed.): Essays presented to Rudolf Wittkower on his 65th birthday in two parts . Phaidon Press, London 1969, ISBN 0-7148-1300-1 ; ISBN 0-7148-1301-X .
- Donald M. Reynolds (Ed.): "Remove not the ancient landmark". Public monuments and moral values. Discourses and comments in tribute to Rudolf Wittkower . Gordon & Breach Publ., Newark, NJ 1996, ISBN 2-88124-602-8 .
- Ulrike Wendland: Biographical handbook of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism. Part 2: L – Z. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 790-798.
- Wittkower, Rudolf , in: Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.2. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 1254
- David Rosand: Rudolf Wittkower, 1901–1971 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 90 , 1996, pp. 557-571 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).
Web links
- Literature by and about Rudolf Wittkower in the catalog of the German National Library
- Making Art History at Columbia - Article about Meyer Schapiro and Rudolf Wittkower
- Entry in the Dictionary of Historians
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Wittkower, Rudolf |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wittkower, Rudolf J. |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British art historian born and trained in Germany |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1901 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
DATE OF DEATH | October 11, 1971 |
Place of death | New York City |