Martin Warnke (12 October 1937 – 11 December 2019) was a German art historian.
Life and work
Warnke grew up in a German pastor's family in Brazil. He studied
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
, history and German literature at the universities of Munich, Madrid and Berlin. In 1963, he wrote a Ph.D. thesis on
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
at the
Free University of Berlin
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...
under
Hans Kauffmann. In 1964 and 1965, he worked at the Berlin museums. In 1970, he completed his Habilitationsschrift on court art at the
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. From 1971 to 1978 he was a professor of art history at the
University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...
. In 1979, he moved to 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 ...
, where he taught art history until his retirement in 2003.
Warnke represented a research direction that is particularly focused on the social history of art. He directed the Center for Political Iconography 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 ...
. Here he devoted himself to the work of the important cultural theorist,
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, ...
.
Warnke was a member of the
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (in English German Academy for Language and Literature) was founded on 28 August 1949, on the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. It is seated in Darmstadt, ...
and the Committee on the Preservation of German Cultural Heritage. From 1983 to 1984, he was a member of the
Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin
The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (german: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled ...
. In 1987, he was a fellow at the
Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
. From 1998 to 1999, he was a member of the
Collegium Budapest - Institute for Advanced Study.
Warnke died on 11 December 2019 in
Halle, Germany, at the age of 82.
Publications
* ''Kommentare zu Rubens''. Berlin 1965.
* ''Flämische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts in der Gemäldegalerie Berlin''. Berlin 1967.
* ''Das Kunstwerk zwischen Wissenschaft und Weltanschauung.'' Gütersloh 1970.
* ''Bau und Überbau: Soziologie der mittelalterlichen Architektur nach den Schriftquellen''. Frankfurt am Main 1976.
* ''Peter Paul Rubens: Leben und Werk''. Cologne 1977.
* ''Cranachs Luther: Entwürfe für ein Image.'' Frankfurt am Main 1984.
* ''Politische Landschaft: Zur Kunstgeschichte der Natur.'' Munich 1992.
* ''Hofkünstler: Zur Vorgeschichte des modernen Künstlers''. 2nd edition, Cologne 1996.
* ''Geschichte der deutschen Kunst in drei Bänden'', Vol. 2: ''Spätmittelalter und Frühe Neuzeit 1400–1750''. Munich 1999.
* ''Bildwirklichkeiten.'' Göttingen 2005.
* ''Velázquez: Form & Reform''. Cologne 2005.
*''Peter Paul Rubens''. Cologne 2006.
* ''Könige als Künstler.'' Münster 2007.
* (with Uwe Fleckner and Hendrik Ziegler), ''Handbuch der politischen Ikonographie''. Vol. 1: ''Abdankung bis Huldigung''. Vol. 2: ''Imperator bis Zwerg''. 2nd edition. Munich 2011.
* ''Zeitgenossenschaft: Zum Auschwitz-Prozess 1964''. Zurich 2014.
Awards
* 1990:
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (german: link=no, Förderpreis für deutsche Wissenschaftler im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to ...
of the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...
* 2006: Prize of the
Gerda Henkel StiftungHenning Ritter, ''Lebenswerk'', ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', 9 November 2006.
/ref>
* 2012: Aby Warburg Prize
The Aby Warburg Prize (German ''Aby Warburg-Preis''; formerly ''Aby M. Warburg-Preis'') is a science prize of the city of Hamburg. It was established in 1979. Since 1980, it is donated by the senate of the city for excellence in the humanities an ...
References
External links
Dictionary of Art Historians: Warnke, Martin
Gerda Henkel Stiftung: Prof. Dr. Martin Warnke, Lebenslauf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warnke, Martin
German art historians
1937 births
2019 deaths
Academic staff of the University of Marburg
Academic staff of the University of Hamburg
20th-century German historians
21st-century German historians
21st-century German male writers
20th-century German male writers
Free University of Berlin alumni
German expatriates in Hungary
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
German expatriates in Brazil
People from Ijuí
German expatriates in Spain
German expatriates in the United States
Complutense University of Madrid alumni