Synopses & Reviews
Review
"In this, her newest book, Kathryn Brush presents a welcome description of German art-historical writing and the currents of thought which influenced the discipline of art history around the turn of the twentieth century. The greatest value in this book resides in the English summary of the influential art-historical writing by Wilhelm V^"oge...and...the writings of Adolph Goldschmidt.... The book is also compelling in details regarding V^"oge and Goldschmidt's academic pursuits. For those interested in learning more about V^"oge and Goldschmidt's publications and early academic careers this book is an excellent introduction." Kevin Mc Manamy, Monatshefte
Review
"This is a carefully documented examination of a seminal moment in the evolution of art history. Brush has made excellent use of archival material and personal papers to contextualize her readings okf these hallmark texts on medieval sculpture and manuscript illumination." Nina Serebrennikov, Historians of Netherlandish Art Newsletter
Synopsis
The Shaping of Art History examines art history's formation in the German academy in the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the work of Wilhelm Vöge and Adolph Goldschmidt, two influential scholars of medieval art, Kathryn Brush analyzes their methods and particularly those scholarly projects that were critical to the development of their approaches. This is the first work to consider how the study of the pioneering scholarship in the field of medieval art is critical to an understanding of the formulation of art historical method as a whole.
Synopsis
A study of the formation of art history in the nineteenth-century German academy.
Table of Contents
Part I. Mentalitiés: 1. Art history and cultural history during the 1880s: the discursive range; Part II. Monumental Styles in Medieval Art History: 2. Wilhelm Vöge and the beginnings of the Monumental style in the Middle Ages (1894); 3. Thematic and methodological range in the scholarship of Goldschmidt and Vöge to c. 1905; Part III. Resonances: 4. German and international responses at the turn of the century; 5. Implications for later discourse in medieval art history.