Max Dvořák (24 June 1874 – 8 February 1921) was a Czech-born

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n art historian. He was a professor of

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

and a famous member of the Vienna School of Art History, employing a '' Geistesgeschichte'' methodology.

Early life and education

Dvořák was born on 24 June 1874 in Roudnice nad Labem,

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

, the son of a Bohemian archivist and librarian. He studied at the universities of

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. In 1897, he completed a PhD thesis in history at the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Vienna. Having been impressed by the teaching of art historian Franz Wickhoff, he focused his attention on art history and wrote his '' Habilitationsschrift'' on Bohemian thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manuscript illumination by Johannes von Neumarkt (1901).

Career

In 1902, Dvořák was appointed lecturer in art history at the

. After

Alois Riegl Alois Riegl (14 January 1858 – 17 June 1905) 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 academic discipl ...

's death in 1905, he became, with the help of Julius von Schlosser, curator of public monuments in Austria. In 1909, he was appointed full professor of art history at the University of Vienna, which caused some problems among the nationalists of the art faculty because of Dvořák's Czech origin. Therefore, Josef Strzygowski set up his own, competing art history institute, known as the "Wiener Institut", within the same university, resulting in Dvořák and Strzygowski teaching from two different art history "centres". He was one of the main representatives of the Vienna School of Art History, his most important publication being on the concept of art history as a history of ideas (''Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte''). In 1905, he succeeded Riegl as general curator of the Imperial Central Commission for the study and conservation of art and historical monuments, today Bundesdenkmalamt. He helped save many Austrian art treasures for post-World War I war reparation. He also continued the publication of the ''Kunstgeschichtliches Jahrbuch der Zentralkommission für die Erhaltung der Kunst- und historischen Denkmale'', and in 1907, he established an inventory of Austrian and Hungarian monuments, called ''Österreichische Kunsttopographie''. Also in 1907, he created the first complete catalogue of The Lobkowicz Collections. In 1916 he published his standard work, ''Katechismus der Denkmalpflege'', in which he was able to raise a broad understanding for the concerns of monument protection.

Personal life and death

Dvořák died from a stroke on 8 February 1921 during a visit to his friend Count Khuen von Belasi at Emmahof castle near Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou in South Moravia. He left a widow and two children. He was buried in Grusbach cemetery, in an honorary grave.

Legacy

Dvořák influenced several art historians, among them Frederick Antal, Otto Benesch, Dagobert Frey, Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg, Emil Kaufmann, Ludwig Münz, Karl Maria Swoboda, Hans Tietze and Lionello Venturi. According to Matthew Rampley, "In many respects his writing acts as a barometer of many of the tensions of the early-twentieth-century intellectual life", casting "important light on the socio-cultural situation that produced art historical discourses in the early decades of the twentieth century." His archives are housed at the University of Vienna. In 1921, fellow Austrian Adolf Loos designed a mausoleum for Dvořák that remained unbuilt. A scaled-down version of it by British architect Sam Jacob was erected in 2016 as a temporary installation at Highgate Cemetery, London.

Select publications

* "Die Illuminatoren des Johann von Neumarkt." In ''Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses'', Vol. 21 (1901), pp. 35–127. * "Das Rätsel der Kunst der Brüder van Eyck." In ''Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhochsten Kaiserhauses'', Vol. 24 (1904), pp. 161–317. * ''Katechismus der Denkmalpflege'' (1916, 2nd edition, 1918). * "Idealismus und Naturalismus in der gotischen Skulptur und Malerei." In ''Historische Zeitschrift'', Vol. 119 (1918), pp. 1–62, 185–246. * '' Oskar Kokoschka: Variationen über ein Thema''. Vienna: Richard Lányi, 1921. * ''Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte: Studien zur abendländischen Kunstentwicklung''. Munich: R. Piper, 1924. * ''Geschichte der italienischen Kunst im Zeitalter der Renaissance'', 2 vols. (1927–28) * ''Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kunstgeschichte''. Edited by Karl Maria Swoboda and Johannes Wilde. Munich: Piper, 1929. * ''Die Gemälde Peter Bruegels des Alteren.'' Vienna: Schroll, 1942. * "El Greco and Mannerism." In ''The Magazine of Art'', Vol. 46 no. 1 (1953), pp. 14–23. * ''Idealism and Naturalism in Gothic Art''. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1967. * ''The History of Art as the History of Ideas''. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.

References

External links

''Dvořák, Max''.
in th
''Dictionary of Art Historians''
Lee Sorensen, ed.
arthistoricum: Max Dvořák (1874–1921)Hans H. Aurenhammer, ‘Max Dvořák and the History of Medieval Art’
''Journal of Art Historiography'' Number 2 June 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dvorak, Max 1874 births 1921 deaths People from Roudnice nad Labem 19th-century Austrian people 19th-century Czech people Austrian art historians Czech art historians Austrian people of Czech descent Historians from Austria-Hungary