The so-called Hamburg School of Art History (''Hamburger Schule der Kunstgeschichte'') was a school of art historians primarily teaching at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

, who were closely connected with the ''Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg'' (KBW) at the

Warburg Haus, Hamburg The Warburg Haus, Hamburg is a German interdisciplinary forum for art history and cultural sciences and primarily for political iconography. It is dedicated to the life and work of Aby Warburg and run by the University of Hamburg as a semi-indepe ...

. Its main members were scholars such as

Aby Warburg Aby Moritz Warburg, better known as Aby Warburg, (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, ...

Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work represents a hig ...

Fritz Saxl Friedrich "Fritz" Saxl (8 January 1890, Vienna, Austria – 22 March 1948, Dulwich, London) was the art historian who was the guiding light of the Warburg Institute, especially during the long mental breakdown of its founder, Aby Warburg, whom h ...

and

Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science. Aft ...

, who had been schooled to see images as cultural documents and inculcated in the investigation of pictorial types. The Hamburg School of Art History is celebrated for the theoretical interpretations of subject matter known as

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

and

iconology Iconology is a method of interpretation in cultural history and the history of the visual arts used by Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and their followers that uncovers the cultural, social, and historical background of themes and subjects in the visu ...

. It was soon established and attracted brilliant students such as

Edgar Wind Edgar Wind (; 14 May 1900 – 12 September 1971) was a German-born British interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary art historian, specializing in iconology in the Renaissance era. He was a member of the school of art historians associated with Aby ...

Hugo Buchthal Hugo Buchthal (August 11, 1909-November 10, 1996) was a German-Jewish art historian, best known for his standard work ''Miniature Painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem'' (1957). He studied at the Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute i ...

, Adolf Katzenellenbogen,

Walter Horn Walter William Horn (18 January 1908 - 26 December 1995) was a German-American medieval studies, medievalist scholar noted for his work on the Timber framing, timber vernacular architecture, vernacular medieval architecture, architecture of the ...

Charles de Tolnay Charles de Tolnay, born Károly von Tolnai (May 27, 1899 – January 17, 1981), was a Hungarian art historian and an expert on Michelangelo. According to Erwin Panofsky, he was "one of the most brilliant art historians" of his time.Ulrike Wendlan ...

Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich (born 23 March 1903 in Leipzig; died 14 September 1978 in Munich) was a German art historian specialized in Italian Renaissance art. From 1947 to 1970, he served as director of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, ...

Lotte Brand Philip Lotte Brand Philip (May 27, 1910 – May 2, 1986) was a German art historian, professor and expert on Netherlandish art, one of the most notable and incisive experts on 14th- and 15th-century art to have studied under Erwin Panofsky. Born a Christ ...

, William S. Heckscher, Klaus Hinrichsen, Liselotte Müller and

H. W. Janson Horst Woldemar Janson (October 4, 1913 – September 30, 1982), was a Russian Empire-born German-American professor of art history best known for his ''History of Art'', which was first published in 1962 and has since sold more than four million c ...

. The School had also an influence on

Ernst Kris Ernst Kris (April 26, 1900 – February 27, 1957) was an Austrian psychoanalyst and art historian. Life Kris was born in 1900 to Leopold Kris, a lawyer, and Rosa Schick in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Kris not only practiced as a psychoanalyst, he ...

's psychological interests.Thomas Roeske, "Traces of Psychology: The Art Historical Writings of Ernst Kris", ''American Imago'', Vol. 58, No. 1 (2001), pp. 463-477.

References

Art history University of Hamburg {{Hamburg-stub

Further reading

References