Paul Jacobsthal (23 February 1880 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

– 27 October 1957 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

) was a scholar of

Greek vase painting Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...

and

Celtic art Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and styli ...

. He wrote his dissertation at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

under the supervision of

Georg Loeschcke Georg Loeschcke (28 June 1852 – 26 November 1915) was a German archaeologist born in Penig, Saxony. He studied archaeology under Johannes Overbeck at Leipzig, afterwards continuing his education at the University of Bonn, where he was a stude ...

. In 1912 he published a catalog of the Greek vases in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, and received a position as a professor 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 the 1920s Jacobsthal became interested in the work of

John Beazley Sir John Davidson Beazley, (; 13 September 1885 – 6 May 1970) was a British classical archaeologist and art historian, known for his classification of Attic vases by artistic style. He was Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at the Un ...

on vase painting, and began to adopt Beazley's taxonomical methodologies. His 1927 work, ', was dedicated to Beazley. In 1930 Jacobsthal and Beazley began to collaborate on an inventory of early Greek vases, the ', a project which they concluded in 1939. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the two scholars served as co-editors of the ''Oxford Classical Monographs''. In 1935 Jacobsthal was forced to leave

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Germany on account of his

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

heritage – though he was baptised a protestant, both of his parents were Jewish.Katharina Ulmschneider and Sally Crawford (2016) "The Camel that Escaped the Nazis: Paul Jacobsthal and a Tang Camel at the Ashmolean". ''Oxoniensia'' 81. He settled in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and in 1937 was appointed as a lecturer at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

. There he continued his collaboration with Beazley. Soon after his arrival in England, Jacobsthal began to study the art of the

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

, and in 1944 published his study of ''Early Celtic Art''. This book focused on the impact of Greek ornament on Celtic decorative arts, and was one of the earliest English-language works to employ the terminology established by

Alois Riegl Alois Riegl (14 January 1858, Linz – 17 June 1905, Vienna) was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. He was one of the major figures in the establishment of art history as a self-sufficient ac ...

in his ''

Stilfragen ''Stilfragen: Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der Ornamentik'' is a book on the history of ornament by the Austrian art historian Alois Riegl. It was published in Berlin in 1893. The English translation renders the title as ''Problems of style ...

''. From 1947 through 1950 Jacobsthal served as University Reader in Celtic Archaeology at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Jacobsthal's final study, ''Greek pins and their connexions with Europe and Asia'' (1956), returned to the cataloguing of material from Greek antiquity, while remaining engaged with issues of the reception of Greek art abroad. Jacobsthal's students included the Swiss archaeologist

Karl Schefold Karl Schefold (; 26 January 1905 – 16 April 1999) was a classical archaeologist based in Basel, Switzerland. Born and educated in Germany, he was forced in 1935 to emigrate to Switzerland, which he adopted as his home country. His speciality ...

and Hans Möbius.

Sources

* Martyn Jope, ''Paul Ferdinand Jacobsthal''. Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Celtic Studies: Oxford, 1983. Ed E Ellis Evans et al., Jesus College, Oxford/Oxbow Books, 1986 15–18. * Martin Robertson, "Dr. P.F. Jacobsthal", ''

The Burlington Magazine ''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation sin ...

'' 100 (1958), 27.

External links

*
Jacobsthal at the Biographical Dictionary of Art Historians.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobsthal, Paul 1880 births 1957 deaths Writers from Berlin People from the Province of Brandenburg German art historians University of Bonn alumni Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford German male non-fiction writers Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy