Rudolf Wittkower

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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.
  • 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)
  1. The early baroque. 1600-1625 . 1999, ISBN 0-300-07939-7 .
  2. The high baroque. 1625-1675 . 1999, ISBN 0-300-07940-0 .
  3. 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
  1. Studies in the Italian baroque, Vol. 1 . 1975.
  2. Studies in the Italian baroque, Vol. 2 . 1975.
  3. Allegory and the Migration of Symbols . 1977.
  4. Idea and image, vol. 1 . 1978.
  5. 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

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