Werner Gross (art historian)

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Werner Gross (born November 25, 1901 in Stuttgart , † January 28, 1982 in Graefelfing near Munich ) was a German art historian .

Life

Gross studied art history in Jena, Freiburg, Stuttgart (TH), Leipzig (among others with Wilhelm Pinder ) and Munich. From 1937 to 1943 he was assistant to Theodor Hetzer at the University of Leipzig . This was followed by a substitute chair in Jena. As a professor of art history, he taught from 1947 to 1965 at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . His research focus was on the architecture of the Middle Ages.

Gross died on January 28, 1982 in Graefelfing near Munich.

meaning

His main focus was on medieval architecture and its relation to antiquity and modern times. His main work “The Occidental Architecture around 1300”, published in 1948, is a standard work in art historical literature.

Werner Gross’s analyzes focus on the individual work. Classification in the overall picture of art history is an essential means of determining the individuality of a work of art. The obvious, the intelligence of the eye, takes the place of a conceptual positivism. Comparison is the basic principle of his research as well as his argumentation. For Gross, comparison is an instrument that uses the dialectic of similarity and contrast to make the unrepeatable nature of creative achievement, the individual, evident.

In the writings, the special care that Gross attaches to the language, especially to the choice of the appropriate term, becomes clear. He regards language and its concepts as a world of forms of our thinking that exists alongside that of works of art and must be brought into a reciprocal relationship by the interpreter: It is not only the search for the appropriate concept, but also an interpretation of the concepts through the perception of the Works of art that make his written elaborations so precise and special.

Publications

Gross' main work is "The Occidental Architecture around 1300", 1948.

Further publications are:

  • "The High Gothic in German Church Buildings, The Style Change around the Year 1250", published in excerpt in the Marburg Yearbook for Art History, 1933
  • The volume “Gotik” in the series “Epochs of Architecture”, 1969
  • “The medieval character of the Gothic cathedral” in the Pinder commemorative publication, 1938
  • "On the importance of the spatial in medieval architecture", in: Contributions to the art of the Middle Ages, 1950
  • "The Reutlinger Marienkirche as city church", in: Schwäbische Heimat, 1952
  • “Anton Bruckner and the Baroque”, attempt to compare art, Festschrift for Kurt Badt, 1961
  • "Central German Choir Facades around 1400", in: Art of the Middle Ages in Saxony, Weimar 1967
  • “Reflections on the spatial character of medieval architecture”, Festschrift for Kurt Badt, 1970
  • Article about the Gothic in Germany in the Propylaea Art History

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norbert Knopp: Werner Gross (November 25, 1901 - January 28, 1982) , In: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte , 46, 1983, pp. 126–128
personal data
SURNAME Gross, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1982
Place of death Graefelfing near Munich