Otto Pächt
Encyclopedia
Otto Pächt was an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n art historian.

Life and work

His father David Pächt was from Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...

, and mother Josefine Freundlich was a member of the IKG Wien.
Pächt studied art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

 in Vienna, and received his doctorate in 1925 with a dissertation on medieval painting, supervised by Julius von Schlosser. Pächt was, alongside Hans Sedlmayr
Hans Sedlmayr
Hans Sedlmayr was an Austrian art historian. Sedlmayr was University Professor of Art History in Vienna from 1936 until 1945, then in Munich from 1951 until 1964, and finally at the University of Salzburg from 1965-69, where he established the art history curriculum...

, one of the proponents of art-historical Strukturforschung, a key scholar of the so-called New Vienna School of Art History
Vienna School of Art History
The Vienna School of Art History is a collective term used to describe the development of fundamental art-historical methods at the University of Vienna...

 (an art-historical school involved in the reformulation of methodological approaches first advanced by Alois Riegl
Alois Riegl
Alois Riegl was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History...

). His advanced doctoral dissertation (Habilitation) of 1932 was written on the painter Michael Pacher
Michael Pacher
Michael Pacher was an Austrian Tyrolean painter and sculptor active during the last quarter of the 15th century. His best-known work is the altarpiece at the church in the village of St. Wolfgang, Austria. This altarpiece contains scenes from the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary...

, supervised by August Grisebach
August Grisebach
August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach was a German botanist and phytogeographer. Born in Hannover on April 17, 1814, he died at Göttingen on May 9, 1879.- Biography :...

, at Heidelberg. It was published, along with work by Sedlmayr, in the journal Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschungen. With the rise of the National Socialists to power in Germany in 1933, Pächt's university post was revoked and he returned to Vienna. Shortly before Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

, Pächt left Austria to accept an invitation to work with the National Gallery of Ireland
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland houses the Irish national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on Clare Street. It was founded in 1854 and opened its doors ten years later...

.

In 1936, Pächt travelled to England. From 1937 until 1941, he worked at the Warburg Institute
Warburg Institute
The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of the influence of classical antiquity on all aspects of European civilisation.-History:The Institute was founded by...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. At Oxford University, he catalogued manuscripts in the collection of the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

, and also had teaching duties. From 1945 he held an honorary lectureship in medieval art at Oriel College
Oriel College
Oriel College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford...

, and in 1950 was appointed to a lecturing position at the University. In the 1950s and 1960s Pächt held short-term positions at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, the Institute of Fine Arts, and at Oxford. In 1963, at the invitation of Otto Demus
Otto Demus
Otto Demus was an Austrian art historian and Byzantinist. He is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History....

, he was appointed as professor of art history at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

. From 1969, Pächt headed the Department of Manuscripts at the Austrian National Library, and following his retirement in 1972, he compiled and edited a catalogue of illuminated manuscripts in the Austrian national collection.

Representative work

  • Das Verhältnis von Bild und Vorwurf in der mittelalterliche Entwicklung der Historiendarstellung, (doctoral dissertation), Vienna, 1925.
  • Gestaltungsprinzipien der westlichen Malerei des 15. Jahrunderts, (Habilitationsschrift), Heidelberg, 1932. Published partially as: "Gestaltungsprinzipien der westlichen Malerei des 15. Jahrhunderts." Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschungen 2 (1933): 75-100.
  • "Panofsky's 'Early Netherlandish Painting'", Burlington Magazine 98 (1956), part I (April): 110-116, part II (August): 267-79.
  • "Alois Riegl
    Alois Riegl
    Alois Riegl was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History...

    ", Burlington Magazine 105 (May 1963): 188-93.
  • Methodisches zur Kunstgeschichten Praxis, ausgewählte Schriften, Munich: Prestel
    Prestel
    Prestel , the brand name for the UK Post Office's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979...

    , 1977. Translated in English as The Practice of Art History: Reflections on Method, New York: Harvey Miller
    Harvey Miller
    Harvey Miller may refer to:* Harvey R. Miller, New York lawyer* SS Harvey C. Miller, a Liberty ship, see List of Liberty ships: G-Je* A character from the TV show "Baywatch" played by Tom McTigue* The main character of the film The Caddy-See also:...

    , 1999.

External links

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