Richard Krautheimer - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Richard Krautheimer

Encyclopedia

Richard Krautheimer is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, November 1, 1994) was a 20th century art historian, architectural historian, Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

scholar, and Byzantinist

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

.

He was born in Germany in 1897, the son of Nathan Krautheimer (1854–1910) and Martha Landman (Krautheimer) (1875–1967). Krautheimer's cousin, Ernst Kitzinger

Ernst Kitzinger

Ernst Kitzinger was a German-American historian of late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine art.-Biography:...

, would also become a prominent Byzantinist. Krautheimer fought in the First World War as an enlisted soldier in the German army (1916–18). Between 1919–23, he initially studied law at, successively, universities in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, and Marburg

Marburg

Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...

under faculty who included Heinrich Wölfflin

Heinrich Wölfflin

Heinrich Wölfflin was a famous Swiss art critic, whose objective classifying principles were influential in the development of formal analysis in the history of art during the 20th century. He taught at Basel, Berlin and Munich in the generation that raised German art history to pre-eminence...

, Adolf Goldschmidt and Werner Weisbach. During these years, he briefly worked on the state inventory of Churches for Erfurt

Erfurt

Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...

(Inventarisierung der Erfurter Kirchen für die Preussische Denkmalpflege). In 1924 he married Trude Hess who subsequently also studied art history and became a noted scholar and collector herself. He completed his dissertation in Halle

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

under Paul Frankl

Paul Frankl

Paul Frankl was a German art historian.After starting with architecture, Frankl studied art history in Munich. He earned his Ph.D. in 1910 and became professor for art history in Halle in 1921. As a result of his Jewish origin he was put on leave in 1933 after the rise to power of Nazism...

in 1925 with the title Die Kirchen der Bettelorden in Deutschland (1240–1340). Frankl's work remained a strong influence for Krautheimer throughout his life. Willibald Sauerländer contends that it was Krautheimer who later introduced Frankl’s work to the United States. The systematizing methodology of Krautheimer's mentor, Frankl, "never left Krautheimer" according to Willibald Sauerlander.

In 1927 he completed his habilitation

Habilitation

Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...

under Georg Hamann in Marburg-Wittenberg. The same year, while researching at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, Krautheimer developed the idea for a handbook of Roman churches with a colleague, Rudolf Wittkower

Rudolf Wittkower

Rudolf Wittkower was a German art historian.-Biography:He was born in Berlin and moved to London in 1934. He taught at the Warburg Institute, University of London from 1934 to 1956 and then at Columbia University from 1956 to 1969 where he was chairman of the Department of Art History and...

, later to become the Corpus Basilicarum. In 1928 he accepted a privatdozent teaching position at Marburg

Marburg

. Except for studies-in-residence at the Hertziana (1930/31, 32/33) he remained at Marburg. The Krautheimers fled Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

persecution, leaving Germany for good. Between 1933–35 Krautheimer worked on the Corpus, accepting paying employment from Frankl’s son in the city. The ever-declining political situation for Jews in Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

-alliance countries compelled the Krautheimers to emigrate to the United States of America. Krautheimer found a position at the University of Louisville

University of Louisville

The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...

, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, a university he purportedly had never heard of. At his request, Louisville hired another fleeing art historian, Krautheimer’s friend from school days, Justus Bier. Krautheimer moved to Vassar

Vassar College

Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...

in 1937 at the request of Vassar’s Art Department chair, Agnes Claflin. That same year saw Krautheimer’s first volume of the Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae, a scholarly inventory and documentation of the early Christian churches in Rome eventually running to five volumes. The set would not be completed until 1977. Following US entry into World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he and Trude became naturalized citizens. Richard volunteered for duty as a senior research analyst for the Office of Strategic Services

Office of Strategic Services

The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...

for the years 1942–44. Here he analyzed aerial photographs of Rome to assist in the protection of historic buildings during bombing. While still at Vassar

Vassar College

, he taught (with lecturer status) at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

(1938–49). He moved to NYU permanently in 1952 as the Jayne Wrightsman

Jayne Wrightsman

Jayne Wrightsman is an American philanthropist, fine arts collector and widow of philanthropist and art collector, Charles B. Wrightsman . She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1965.-References:...

Professor of Fine Arts. The early 1950s were devoted to researching his one monograph on an artist, Lorenzo Ghiberti, published jointly with his wife in 1956. He would serve for one semester as acting Director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

.

Krautheimer next engaged in what he called his most difficult book to research and write: the survey volume on early Christian architecture for the Pelican History of Art. The manuscript was completed in 1963 and published two years later. The volume turned out to be one of the finest syntheses of late antique/early medieval architecture published and brought Krautheimer his widest readership. He revised and reissued the work twice, in 1975 and 1979. After a second tome on Ghiberti in 1971, Krautheimer retired from NYU as Samuel F. B. Morse Professor Emeritus and returned to Rome. Wolfgang Lotz

Wolfgang Lotz

Wolfgang Lotz was an Israeli spy during the Cold War.- Biography :Wolfgang Lotz was born at Mannheim, Germany in 1921 to a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish German father. Lotz's father was a theater director who worked alongside his wife, an actress...

, friend and fellow architectural historian, offered him a residence at the Bibliotheca Hertziana. There, Krautheimer completed his long-standing research on the Corpus Basilicarum. In these final years he set to work writing two of his most synthetic and lyrical works on art history. Rome: Profile of a City (1980) and The Rome of Alexander VII (1985) combined social history, vast breadth of archival knowledge and insightful architectural history into single volumes. In both cases, Krautheimer selected comparatively neglected periods in Roman history to offer a compelling narrative of the interaction of public works and patronage. While assisting friends with plans for his 100th birthday, Krautheimer died at 97 at the Palazzo Zuccari

Palazzetto Zuccari

Palazzetto or Palazzo Zuccari is a 16th century building in Rome, at the crossroads of via Sistina and via Gregoriana, on the piazza Trinità dei Monti. It was built by Federico Zuccari....

. His wife had preceded him in death seven years before. His many students at New York University included Howard Saalman, Leo Steinberg

Leo Steinberg

Leo Steinberg was an American art critic and art historian and a naturalized citizen of the U.S.-Life:Steinberg was born in Moscow, Russia and grew up in Berlin, Germany. He was the son of Isaac Nachman Steinberg. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art...

, Frances Huemer, Marvin Trachtenberg, Slobodan Curcic, and Dale Kinney.

Publications

[dissertation] Die Kirchen der Bettelorden in Deutschland, 1240–1340. Cologne, 1925.
[habilitation] Mittelalterliche Synagogen. Marburg-Wittenberg, 1927.
"Introduction to an Iconography of Medieval Architecture." Journal of the Courtald and Warburg Institutes 5 (1942): 1–33, reprinted in: Studies in Early Christian, Medieval and Renaissance Art. Edited by James S. Ackerman et al. New York: New York University Press, 1969.
Rome: Profile of a City, 312–1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
"Sancta Maria Rotunda." Arte del Primo millennio, Atti del II convegno per lo studio dell'arte dell'alto medio evo tenuto presso l'Università di Pavia nel settembre 1950. Edited by Edoardo Arslan. Turin: 1953: 21–7.
and Krautheimer-Hess, Trude. Lorenzo Ghiberti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956
"Mensa-coemeterium-martyium." Cahiers archeologiques 11 (1960): 15–40.
"The Carolingian Revival of Early Christian Architecture." Art Bulletin 24 (1942): 1–38. Reprinted in a slightly revised version in Studies in Early Christian, Medieval and Renaissance Art (above): 203–56.
"Riflessioni sull'architettura paleocristiana." In Atti del VI Congresso Internationale di Archeologia Cristiana, Ravena 23–30 settembre 1962. Studi di Antichità Christiana 26. Vatican City: 1965, pp. 567–79.
Ghiberti's Bronze Doors. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.
Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae: The early Christian Basilicas of Rome (IV–IX Centuries). Vatican City: Pontificio istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1937–1977.
Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture. Baltimore: Penguin Books,1965.
Mittelalterliche Synagogen. Berlin: Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, 1927.
The Rome of Alexander VII, 1655–1667. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Three Christian Capitals: Topography and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Zur venezianischen Trecentoplastik. Marburg an der Lahn: Verlag des Kunstgeschichtlichen Seminars der Universität Marburg an der Lahn, 1926–1935.
Opicinus de Canistris; Weltbild und Bekenntnisse eines avignonesischen Klerikers des 14. Jahrhunderts. London: The Warburg Institute, 1936.

Publications

Further reading