Karl Schnaase
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Karl Schnaase (7 September 1798 – 20 May 1875) was a distinguished
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
art historian and
jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
. He was one of the founders of modern
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 ...
, and the author of one of the first surveys of the history of art.


Life

Schnaase was born in Danzig (Gdańsk) in
West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...
. As a law student at the
University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
, Schnaase attended the lectures of
Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
on philosophy in the spring of 1817. In the fall of 1818 he followed Hegel to the
University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
, where he attended the lectures that would become the ''
Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences The ''Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences'' (abbreviated as ''EPS'' or simply ''Encyclopaedia''; german: Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse, ''EPW'', translated as ''Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences ...
''. However, his philosophical studies were cut short when he passed his first juristic exam in July 1819, and received a position in the municipal court of Danzig. Before returning to Danzing, Schnaase travelled to
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 ...
, and was deeply impressed by the art collections of that city. For much of the 1820s Schnaase was employed as an assessor in
Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
, while maintaining his interest in art. From 1826 through 1827 he embarked on a year-long journey through
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, visiting
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 ...
,
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, and
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, among other cities. At the end of his journey he hiked through the
Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
and the
Bavarian Alps The Bavarian Alps (german: Bayerische Alpen) is a collective name for several mountain ranges of the Northern Limestone Alps within the German state of Bavaria. Geography The term in its wider sense refers to that part of the Eastern Alps that ...
to
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, where he became ill. Settled once again in Königsberg, Schnaase began to plan a book based on his Italian journey, which was however never completed. In 1828 his legal career took him to Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), and in 1829 south again to
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, whence he was able to acquaint himself with the medieval monuments of the
Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...
. He also found in the Rhineland a more congenial society in which to pursue his interest in art history, and in particular developed a friendship with
Gottfried Kinkel Johann Gottfried Kinkel (11 August 1815 – 13 November 1882) was a German poet also noted for his revolutionary activities and his escape from a Prussian prison in Spandau with the help of his friend Carl Schurz. Early life He was born at Ober ...
. In summer 1830 Schnaase travelled through the
Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
; his examination of the monuments there led to his first major publication, the ''Niederländische Briefe'' (''Dutch letters''), which appeared in 1834. Although written in the form of a conventional travel narrative, the ''Briefe'' constituted in fact a major contribution to the theoretical literature on art history. As Michael Podro has written, Schnaase's first book
is the principal transposition of Hegel's thought into the general discussion of the development of art.... In his ''Niederländische Briefe'' Schnaase responded to two difficulties in Hegel's ''
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 assumption that past works of art were definitively understood from the point of view of the present, and that art was representative of its culture than contributing to it. The way in which he did this dominated one critical tradition for the next hundred years.
In brief, Schnaase argued that the various periods of art history were interconnected, and indeed mutually illuminating. Thus the modern historian can most fully understand a given monument through consideration of what had come before and what would follow. He wrote
I begin to feel in each section of the past its present together with its future. In this way clear and exact historical consideration leads to higher aesthetic realisation... which feels in the beauty of each individual period its connection with the others.
The contemporary viewer is further benefited by his ability to view an artwork, not as an object with a particular function, but as material for purely aesthetic contemplation. The contemplation of art as detached from its function allows the historian to view art as autonomous from, or indeed constitutive of, cultural developments. The ''Niederländische Briefe'' therefore provided the intellectual justification for art history as an autonomous discipline, and indeed Schnaase's next major project was the composition of his monumental ''Geschichte der bildenden Künste'' (''History of the fine arts''). He was able to pursue this project despite his continuing employment as a jurist. As he neared completion of the first volume, however, Schnaase was surprised by the appearance of a ''Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte'' (''Handbook of art history'') (1841) by
Franz Theodor Kugler Franz Theodor Kugler (19 January 1808, Stettin – 18 March 1858, Berlin) was an art historian and cultural administrator for the Prussian state. He was the father of historian Bernhard von Kugler (1837-1898). He studied literature, music and t ...
. Kugler's work, which he claimed to be "the first comprehensive survey of art" seemed to duplicate Schnaase's project. Schnaase became convinced, however, that if Kugler was his better in technical matters, he could still offer a unique, general viewpoint of the development of art. The first two volumes, on ancient near eastern and on classical art, respectively, were published in 1843, and dedicated to Kugler. Schnaase's work was distinguished from Kugler's by its "Hegelian desire to write a history of art as a history of the mentality of the human race, an endeavor specifically disavowed by Kugler." The first volume of his ''Geschichte'' began with a lengthy treatise on aesthetics, indicating a philosophical inclination that was criticized in reviews by both Kugler and
Gustav Friedrich Waagen Gustav Friedrich Waagen (11 February 1794 – 15 July 1868) was a German art historian. His opinions were greatly respected in England, where he was invited to give evidence before the royal commission inquiring into the condition and future o ...
. Despite this critical skepticism, and a new appointment to the court of appeals in Berlin in 1848, Schnaase continued to produce new volumes of his ''Geschichte''. A volume on early Christian and Islamic art appeared in 1844; one on "the actual middle ages" in 1850; the Gothic in 1856; the late Middle Ages in 1861; and medieval Italian art in 1864. At this point, instead of continuing his survey into the Renaissance, Schnaase began work on a second edition of the existing work. He was aided in the revision by a number of prominent art historians. It has been suggested that Schnaase stopped where he did "because of the appearance of
Jacob Burckhardt Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfri ...
's equally contextual works on the Renaissance as well as... the areligious attitudes of the modern era." Schnaase retired from his legal commitments in 1857, and received a series of awards in honor of his art-historical achievements, including an honorary doctorate from 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 ...
and the Order of Maximilian from the
King of Bavaria King of Bavaria was a title held by the hereditary Wittelsbach rulers of Bavaria in the state known as the Kingdom of Bavaria from 1805 until 1918, when the kingdom was abolished. It was the second time Bavaria was a kingdom, almost a thousand ...
. Later in life Schnaase became increasingly preoccupied by the relationship between art and religion. He was among the founders of the ''Verein für religiöse Kunst in der evangelischen Kirche'' (Society for Religious Art in the Lutheran Church) and a co-editor of the ''Christliche Kunstblatt'' (''Journal for Christian Art''). Two of his lectures on this subject were published: ''Über das Verhältniss der Kunst zum Christenthum'' (''On the relationship of art to Christianity'') (1852) and ''Bildung und Christenthum'' (''Education and Christianity'') (1861). Schnaase continued to travel across Europe until the end of his life, despite his increasingly poor health. He died in
Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
in 1875.


Legacy

Schnaase's work was of tremendous importance for the development of art history as an autonomous discipline. His ''Geschichte'' facilitated the teaching of art in German-speaking countries, and his theoretical concerns and formulations influenced a number of later art historians. Among these,
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 ...
may have been the most influenced by Schnaase's thought; Riegl's theory of the ''Kunstwollen'' was deeply indebted to Schnaase's ''Niederländische Briefe''.M. Podro, ''The critical historians of art'' (New Haven, 1982), 96.


References


Sources

*W. Lübke, "Carl Schnaase, biographische Skizze," in C. Schnaase, ''Geschichte der bildenden Künste im 15. Jahrhundert'', ed. W. Lübke (Stuttgart, 1879), xv-lxxxiv
Available online.
*M. Podro, ''The critical historians of art'' (New Haven, 1982), 31–43. *M. Schwarzer, "Origins of the art history survey text," ''Art Journal'' 54 (1995), 24–29
Available online.


External links





* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schnaase, Karl 1798 births 1875 deaths German art historians Writers from Gdańsk People from West Prussia German male non-fiction writers Jurists from Gdańsk