Moritz Thausing (3 June 1838 – 11 August 1884) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
art historian
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 ...
, and counts among the founders of the
Vienna School of Art History {{Distinguish, Vienna School of History
The Vienna School of Art History (german: Wiener Schule der Kunstgeschichte) was the development of fundamental art-historical methods at the University of Vienna. This school was not actually a dogmatically ...
.
Life
The son of a palace official in Schloß Tschischkowitz (modern
Čížkovice, near
Litoměřice
Litoměřice (; german: Leitmeritz) is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
The town is the seat ...
in the
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...
), Thausing began his academic career as a student of German literature and history. He studied first in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, and in 1858 went to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, where he studied at the Österreichische Institut für Geschichtsforschung (Austrian Institute for Historical Research). There he came into contact with
Rudolf Eitelberger
Rudolf Eitelberger, full name Rudolf Eitelberger von Edelberg (17 April 1817 in Olomouc, Moravia – 18 April 1885 in Vienna) was an art historian and the first ''Ordinarius'' (full professor) for art history at the University of Vienna. He is co ...
, who since 1852 had held the first chair in art history at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
. Under his influence Thausing began to study the history of art. In 1862 he received an appointment as a library assistant at the
Akademie der bildenden Künste, where he also gave general lectures on world and cultural history. In 1864 Eitelberger secured a position for him with the print collection of the
Albertina, which he would direct beginning in 1868, although he received the formal title of Director only in 1876.
In 1871 Thausing was an active participant in the so-called "
Holbein convention" in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, at which a number of prominent art historians convened to determine which of two versions of
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...
's
Meyer Madonna was the original work.
In 1873, once again due to the advocacy of Eitelberger, Thausing was appointed as a professor ''extraordinarius'' for art history at the University, and became ''ordinarius'' in 1879. A progressive mental illness overshadowed his final years. His health declined dramatically after he became interim director of the newly founded ''Istituto Austriaco di studi storici'' in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. Following a temporary commitment to a mental hospital, he died during a vacation in his homeland through drowning (probably intentional) in the
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...
near Litoměřice.
Legacy
In methodological hindsight, Thausing played a decisive role in the development of art history as an autonomous discipline. Although his mentor, Eitelberger, had already sought to lend historica research and the aesthetic appreciation of art equal weight, Thausing sought the complete separation of art history from
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
. The task of the art historian was, for him, solely the establishment of facts regarding any given work, and not aesthetic judgment. In this regard he was profoundly influenced by the so-called "experimental method" of the Italian scientist and connoisseur
Giovanni Morelli, whom he honored as his "fratello in Raffaele" ("brother in
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
"). Morelli had developed a meticulous procedure, through which he claimed to be able to determine the painter of a work through analysis of physiognomic details. Although this procedure was somewhat inaccessible, it represented a first step toward the comparative stylistic analyses that would serve as a foundation for modern art history. The transition from Morellian connoisseurship to stylistic analysis was conclusively effected by Thausing's students, and in particular by
Alois Riegl and
Franz Wickhoff
Franz Wickhoff (7 May 1853 – 6 April 1909) was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History.
Early life
Franz Wickhoff was born on 7 May 1853 in Steyr. He studied at the University of Vienna under ...
, the most important representatives of the Vienna School of art history.
Sources
This entry is substantially based on the comparable entry in the German Wikipedia.
Selected works
*''Dürers Briefe, Tagebücher und Reime'' (Vienna, 1872).
*''Die Votivkirche in Wien'' (Vienna, 1879).
*''Le livre d'esquisses de J. J. Callot'' (Vienna, 1881).
*''Dürer. Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst'', two volumes (Leipzig, 1876; 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1884).
*''Wiener Kunstbriefe'' (Leipzig, 1884).
Selected secondary literature
*Rudolf von Eitelberger, "Nekrolog Moriz Thausing," ''Wiener Zeitung'', 26 August 1884, pp. 4 ff.
*Simon Laschitzer, "Nekrolog Moriz Thausing," ''Kunst-Chronik: Beiblatt zur Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst'' 19 (45), 9 October 1884, pp. 749 ff.
*
Julius von Schlosser
Julius Alwin Franz Georg Andreas Ritter von Schlosser (23 September 1866, Vienna – 1 December 1938, Vienna) was an Austrian art historian and an important member of the Vienna School of Art History. According to Ernst Gombrich, he was "One of the ...
, "Die Wiener Schule der Kunstgeschichte," ''
Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Instituts für Geschichtsforschung'' 13 (Innsbruck, 1934).
*Artur Rosenauer, "Moriz Thausing und die Wiener Schule der Kunstgeschichte," ''Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte'' 36 (1983), pp. 135 ff.
External links
''Thausing, Moritz''.in the
''Dictionary of Art Historians''Lee Sorensen, ed.
Art as ExistenceGabriele Guercio - The MIT Press, 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thausing, Morirz
1838 births
1884 deaths
19th-century Austrian people
Austrian art historians
German Bohemian people
Austrian people of German Bohemian descent
People from Litoměřice District
Academic staff of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna