Art history
In 1992, a student in Virginia opened a textbook titled Art History: A Contextual Inquiry Course. That book defined the field as an academic discipline devoted to studying artistic production and visual culture throughout human history. Art historians use historical methods or philosophies like historical materialism to analyze artworks. They examine how art impacts societies and cultures while tracking changes in style over time. This work differs from art criticism which judges individual works for value. It also stands apart from aesthetics which remains a branch of philosophy rather than a study of objects themselves.
Pliny the Elder wrote passages about Greek sculpture and painting before his death in 79 AD. These texts form the earliest surviving writing classified as art history. Pliny discussed techniques used by the painter Apelles between 332 BC and 329 BC. In China during the sixth century writers established a canon of worthy artists. Xie He formulated Six Principles of Painting that guided these scholar-officials who were artists themselves. Their calligraphy skills allowed them to judge other painters objectively. Both traditions developed independently yet produced influential approaches shaping later scholarship across centuries.
Giorgio Vasari published Lives of the Most Excellent Painters Sculptors and Architects in the sixteenth century. The Tuscan painter emphasized art's progression and development as a milestone in this field. His book featured biographies of Italian artists including Michelangelo whom he knew personally. Vasari's writings served as a model for many scholars after him. Johann Joachim Winckelmann criticized this cult of artistic personality starting around 1755. He argued that learned beholders should focus on views rather than artist viewpoints. Winckelmann published Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of Greeks in 1755 introducing early concepts of art criticism.
Heinrich Wölfflin studied under Burckhardt in Basel before developing his own theories between 1864 and 1945. He introduced three concepts focusing on psychology applied by Wilhelm Wundt. Wölfflin believed houses looked good if their façades resembled human faces. His book Renaissance and Baroque showed how stylistic periods differed from one another. Unlike Giorgio Vasari he remained uninterested in artist biographies proposing an art history without names instead. Alois Riegl and Franz Wickhoff developed major thought at the University of Vienna during the late nineteenth century. They reassessed neglected periods like late antiquity previously considered decline from classical ideals.
A group gathered in Hamburg in 1920 to study Iconography including Erwin Panofsky and Aby Warburg. These scholars developed vocabulary still used by art historians today. Iconography refers to symbols derived from written sources especially scripture and mythology. Aby Warburg assembled a library devoted to studying classical tradition in later art and culture. Fritz Saxl helped develop this collection into a research institute affiliated with the University of Hamburg. When forced to leave Germany in the 1930s Saxl brought Warburg's library to London establishing the Warburg Institute. Panofsky settled in Princeton where his methodology determined American art history for generations.
By the mid-twentieth century Marxist ideas spread rapidly throughout Europe alongside inquiries into art history. Georgi Plekhanov wrote Historical Materialism and the Arts in 1899 describing how materialist thinking could reach clearer outlooks on topics. Walter Benjamin published The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in 1935 arguing that artworks possess an aura found within their original presence. He suggested this aura decayed as reproduction made time and space harder to apprehend. Marxists believe artistic periods obey their own logic yet remain confined within modes of production existing classes shape all societal ideas including art itself.
Linda Nochlin published Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? during the 1970s igniting feminist art history. Her essay remains one of the most widely read texts about female artists globally. A College Art Association Panel chaired by Nochlin titled Eroticism and the Image of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Art followed in 1972. Scores of papers sustained momentum fueled by the Second-wave feminist movement over the next decade. Griselda Pollock used psychoanalytic theory while Mary Garrard and Norma Broude co-founded the Feminist Art History Conference. Their anthologies brought feminist perspectives into discourse challenging Western art canon interpretations like Carol Duncan's re-reading of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
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Common questions
What is the definition of art history as an academic discipline?
Art history is defined as an academic discipline devoted to studying artistic production and visual culture throughout human history. It uses historical methods or philosophies like historical materialism to analyze artworks. This field examines how art impacts societies and cultures while tracking changes in style over time.
Who wrote the earliest surviving writing classified as art history?
Pliny the Elder wrote passages about Greek sculpture and painting before his death on the 2nd of May 1979 AD. These texts form the earliest surviving writing classified as art history. Pliny discussed techniques used by the painter Apelles between 332 BC and 329 BC.
When did Giorgio Vasari publish Lives of the Most Excellent Painters Sculptors and Architects?
Giorgio Vasari published Lives of the Most Excellent Painters Sculptors and Architects in the sixteenth century. The Tuscan painter emphasized art's progression and development as a milestone in this field. His book featured biographies of Italian artists including Michelangelo whom he knew personally.
How did Heinrich Wölfflin differ from Giorgio Vasari in his approach to art history?
Heinrich Wölfflin studied under Burckhardt in Basel before developing his own theories between 1864 and 1945. Unlike Giorgio Vasari he remained uninterested in artist biographies proposing an art history without names instead. He introduced three concepts focusing on psychology applied by Wilhelm Wundt.
Where was the Warburg Institute established after being forced to leave Germany in the 1930s?
Fritz Saxl brought Warburg's library to London establishing the Warburg Institute when forced to leave Germany in the 1930s. A group gathered in Hamburg in 1920 to study Iconography including Erwin Panofsky and Aby Warburg. These scholars developed vocabulary still used by art historians today.