History and Images: Towards a New Iconology (review)
Reviewed by: History and Images: Towards a New Iconology Judith Collard Bolvig, Axel and Phillip Lindley , History and Images: Towards a New Iconology ( Medieval Texts and Culture of Northern Europe 5), Turnhout, Brepolse, 2003; cloth; pp. xxii, 430; 170 b/w illustrations, 28 colour plates; RRP €90; ISBN 2503511554. The rediscovery of the significance of the visual amongst literary scholars and historians has turned what was once the focus of predominantly art and architectural historians into a much-contested field. In recent writings historians and others have found the art historical focus on the masterpiece, on style and iconography frustrating, while art historians are uncomfortable with the way the image has been reduced to a simple illustration or to a text, ignoring the very visual qualities that provide its interest. The apparent rigid separations into disciplinary areas often reveal an ignorance of the historiography of both historical and art historical research, where scholars such as Huizinga, Burckhardt and Warburg all drew on the broad range of cultural expressions from the playing card, the banquet, the pageant or such expressions of 'high art' as plays and paintings to explore the past. At the same time these territorial debates can seem odd because, by the very nature of medieval material, scholars often draw on the varieties of surviving knowledge available. The papers that are assembled here include writings by several academics who are well qualified to explore these issues. The collection is the result of a conference held at the University of Copenhagen in 1999, as part of a research project entitled The Visual Construction of Reality. As described in the introduction by Axel Bolvig, 'the main object was, and remains, not only to show how the images may be understood as an equal partner to the text in historical research but also to demonstrate that imagery constitutes a separate category of source material with its own category of meaning and information and requiring its own interpretative methodologies.' Bolvig refers to Magritte's well-known painting La trahison des images, where he wrote beneath a simple image of a pipe, 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' to highlight the distinctiveness of visual information. He argues that the treachery found in such works lies not within the image itself but rather with the words connected with that image. This focus on the uniqueness of the visual makes this a refreshing collection. Whether the essays found here lead us towards a new iconology is less certain, although the choice of this subheading does, at least, draw from a methodology that comes from attempts to understand the visual as opposed to the literary. The collection is a generous one containing 20 essays divided into 3 principle [End Page 200] sections: Image and History; Image Databases and History; and Images as Source Material. The first, with the thought-provoking introduction, constitutes the most methodologically focused section Francis Haskell writes on the legacy of Johann Huizinga as one of the first history texts to be written under the inspiration of visual material and as one that continues to have an impact on historians and art historians, despite ongoing disagreements about his methodology and interpretation. Jean-Claude Schmitt's essay is, in part, an attempt to formulate guidelines for a more productive collaboration between art historians and historians. He, like others in this collection, underlines the manner in which the very specificity of both image and language preclude the idea that the former can ever merely illustrate a text, pointing out that the image needs to 'be considered as an 'inscribed surface' with a set of hierarchies. Keith Moxey explores the relationship between art history and visual culture, arguing that visual studies can take advantage of the opening up of interpretation created by the impact of postmodernism in the recognition of the role of subjectivity both of the material studied and those who study it. He writes that the 'point of visual culture would be not only to recognise the different genres of image production that characterises a particular culture, but also to insist that their unique qualities call for distinct approaches to their interpretation.' He also argues that it is in the study of differences and in...
- Research Article
- 10.31650/2519-4208-2020-20-321-331
- May 12, 2020
- Problems of theory and history of architecture of Ukraine
Today’s culture presents new important challenges for the education system. The transformation of cultural norms and standards and the movement of social consciousness towards tolerance require the formation of a new ideal of "cultural human". The value of professional knowledge implies a strong connection with the moral upbringing of future professionals and their orientation towards general cultural values. For its part, actual educational paradigm focuses on the principle of complexity and interdisciplinarity, integration of different scientific methods. This is appropriate for the studying and teaching the art disciplines. Of course, art has always been considered in close connection with the cultural and historical context, because art cannot exist outside it. Today, however, the search for new perspectives in interdisciplinary research is relevant in the field of culture and the arts, as in humanities and social sciences in general. This is also due to the transformation of the concept of art in today’s world, which requires the search for new vectors of analysis, addition and expansion of traditional tools of art’sanalysis. The objectives of this study are to analyze the educational and work programs and textbooks of the History of Fine Arts (the History of Arts) of the last five years; to determine what scientific culturological methods are most commonly used in the development of today’s educational and methodicalliterature (textbooks, manuals, educational programs) of “The History of Fine Arts ("The History of Arts"); to identify what other methods should be appropriate to include in the toolkit of studying and teaching the art history; to present the interaction between the teacher and students as a "cultural dialogue"; to reveal the role of cultural approach in the spiritual and aesthetic education of future artists.The researchers’ interest in the cultural aspects of the pedagogical process in today’s Ukrainian studies is increasing. O. Malanchuk-Rybak, I. Pyatnitska-Pozdnyakova, O.Shevnyuk, N. Kovaleva, Yu. Solovyova and others consider the cultural aspects of studying art history and teaching art disciplines. The cultural approach to analyzing the evolution of the world's art systems is demonstrated by the textbooks of the last decade, including “The History of the Arts” by O. Shevnyuk (2015), “The History of Arts” by K. Tregubov (2015), “Ukrainian Art in the Historical Dimension” (Yu. Solovyova, O. Mkrtichyan, 2017), etc. As well asthe research has determined the culturological orientation of educational and work programs in last five years: “The History of Arts” (Trofimchuk-Kirilova T., 2017), “The History of Fine Arts”(O. Kirichen-ko, 2019), “The History of Fine Arts and Architecture” (Panasyuk V. 2015), “The History of Fine Arts” (Panyok TV, 2016), etc. The article deals with the cultural aspects of the study and teaching of the art on the basis of these educational and methodological publications. For this purpose the following methods are used in the article: descriptive method, method of system analysis, axiological approach and socio-cultural analysis.The analysis of these textbooks and work programs made it possible to formulate the subject, purpose and main objectives of the course “The History of Fine Arts”. The aim of the course is to form students' systematic knowledge of the development of fine arts from archaic times to the present.In this context the culturological orientation of teaching "The History of Fine Arts" makes it possible to solve the following educational problems: forming a complex of knowledge about the essence of art, its functions in culture and society; moral and aesthetic education and involvement in cultural values; revealing the general patterns of evolution of the world art systems; forming an artistic picture of the world through mastering the system of artistic knowledge; understanding of the historical and cultural conditionality of aesthetic canons in art; mastering the basic principles and forms of communicative experience of art as a means of transmitting socially meaningful cultural meanings; development of critical perception and interpretation of works of art, ability to navigate in artistic styles and movements; involvement of artistic and creative artifacts in the fulfillment of various socio-cultural tasks. Thus, future artists not only learn to solve immediate professional tasks, but also accumulate the ideological and artistic experience of the past, acquire the ability to interpret it and make certain predictions, in particular in thetoday’s art market. Domestic researchers believe that the synthesis of methods of art studies and cultural studies is relevant in teaching the course "The History of Fine Arts". It was found out that systematic analysis, diachronic and synchronic methods, socio-cultural approach, biographical method allow revealing the content of the course most completely. Semiotic analysis and gender approach can also open up the new perspectives of the studying and teaching of art history in today’s humanitarian discourse.
- Research Article
7
- 10.2307/3050313
- Mar 1, 1983
- The Art Bulletin
Among the most engaging genres of scholarly literature, art history and architecture history publications appeal to the eye as well as the intellect. In the late 20th century the literature of art history has been documented by two standard reference bibliographies published by the American Library Association: Mary Chamberlin's Guide to Art Reference Books (ALA 1959), and Guide to the Literature of Art History by Etta Arntzen and Robert Rainwater (ALA Editions, 1980). Now, a new supplementary volume, Guide to the Literature of Art History 2 (ALA Editions, 2004) has arrived to record and annotate the best art and architecture books and journals published worldwide in the last two decades of the 20th century. The main intent of Guide to the Literature of Art History (GLAH) 2 is to supplement its predecessor by recording important publications produced primarily in western languages. Adopting the chapter and numbering system of the first volume, GLAH 2 will help art scholars keep abreast of more recent publications in art and architectural history. An expert team of 24 contributors has come together with editors Max Marmor and Alex Ross to produce this significant work, featuring new titles, volumes, editions, and reprints, while providing ample cross referencing to GLAH 1. In addition, two brand new chapters have been added, Patronage & Collecting, and Cultural Heritage, which covers the literature of art preservation and art law. Librarians and scholars will welcome the new collection development information, including: The best electronic art and architectural history sources. Cumulative 40-year bibliography of art history literature, with GLAH 1. Critical selection of nearly all literature in art history, primarily in Western European languages, since 1977. Resources for art historians outside their areas of specialization. Helping to reestablish bibliographical control of significant art and architectural literature for the last two decades of the 20th century, Guide to the Literature of Art History 2 is the authoritative, must-have resource for all art history students, institutions, and agencies.
- Research Article
- 10.5204/mcj.2439
- Nov 1, 2004
- M/C Journal
Stop Press!
- Book Chapter
- 10.1007/978-94-011-4265-6_16
- Jan 1, 2000
A reader perusing the standard art history texts of European, American and Asian mainstream art looking for representations of ecstasy in any of its forms, might be surprised at how rarely any such images are encountered. But upon consideration of the ideological underpinnings of virtually all of the labelable movements in art history — Egyptian, Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-classical in the West, Confucian, Buddhist, Hindu in the East — it becomes clear that we associate and in effect apprehend these movements primarily in terms of the societal and institutional milieux that provide the patronage and the setting for both the production and the “consumption” of what are for us the familiar and defining exempla of these various traditions. That is, to put it another way, the court, the church or the civic polis provide the locus of enunciation and the context of description of the largely public “high art” that essentially defines these traditions, and that when this public or institutional tradition is supplemented by examples of more “private art,” that usually involves examples of elite or (as in the Renaissance and 17th century) high bourgeois art and artifacts that still reflect the modes and forms of courtly, ecclesiastical or civic “high art” (the obvious exception, folk art, not usually being included in the standard art history corpus).
- Research Article
3
- 10.1525/jsah.2015.74.2.147
- Jun 1, 2015
- Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
> You throw a stone into a deep pond. Splash. The sound is big, and it reverberates throughout the surrounding area. What comes out of the pond after that? All we can do is stare at the pond, holding our breath. > > — Haruki Murakami , 1Q84 What is the future of architectural history? The very question embodies an inherent contradiction, since historians are particularly skilled at studying the past; our aptitudes for predicting the future are far less honed. Nevertheless, important anniversaries invite introspection, reflection on our past, and speculation about our future. What pressures are coming to bear on our field that are most likely to cause significant change? Who will be our audiences in the decades to come? How will they find our work, and what will be the forms of our scholarship? In what follows, I examine three aspects of the architectural historian’s practice, casting stones into the pond of our field to see, as Murakami writes, what might come out of it after that. Until very recently, architectural historians generally conducted research in mostly the same manner as their colleagues across the humanities, which is to say, they did so largely working alone in libraries, museums, archives, and special collections. The single factor differentiating our work from that of scholars studying largely text-based or pictorially based subjects was our need for on-site investigation. Examining architectural, urban, and landscape spaces themselves has always been—and will no doubt continue to be—a crucial distinguishing aspect of our research culture, and there is little doubt that we will continue to perform solitary investigations with a range of primary and secondary sources. However much our methods of inquiry may remain constant, the archive, the library, and even the museum have changed. What does “the archive” now mean? In our current era of increasingly massive amounts of digitized …
- Research Article
1
- 10.36340/2071-6818-2021-17-1-51-67
- Mar 10, 2021
- Scientific and analytical journal Burganov House. The space of culture
Kievan Rus’
- Research Article
- 10.35609/jmmr.2025.10.1(4)
- Mar 30, 2025
- GATR Journal of Management and Marketing Review
Objective - This article examines the relationship between art history writing and the theory of temporal hierarchy, specifically the application of historical time in art historical research. The article draws on several representative viewpoints of historical time, such as the theory of historical cycles, the diversity of historical time, the temporalization of history, and the narrative of historical time. Methodology/Technique - Combining the method of historical hermeneutics, this analysis examines the significance of the temporal hierarchy of history for the development of art history writing. The study explores the relationship and contemporary significance between art, history, and time perspectives from the perspectives of experiential space and expectancy. It explains how these concepts influence the writing of global art history. Findings – This study will start with the three main concepts of time view in art history: cyclical view, linear development view, and art history periodization, attempting to discover the three-layer structure of "art history consciousness time view," exploring the construction process of art history view from the perspective of time, exploring and excavating people's potential cognitive consciousness, and explaining the relationship between history and time from a new perspective of relevance, further elaborating on the latest trend of art history writing under the guidance of the theory of time hierarchy. Through in-depth analysis of artistic works, the profound influence of time hierarchy on the evolution of art schools and artists' creative practices has been revealed. The continuity and correlation of art history are more critical than systematicity and wholeness. Originality - Art history should be regarded as a part of the broader history of art, prompting us to pay closer attention to the interaction between art and society, as well as the emergence and development of artworks within their social and cultural context, when studying. The theory of time hierarchy offers a new perspective on writing art history by analyzing different temporal levels and exploring the connotations, values, and relationships between artworks and history, culture, and society profoundly. Type of Paper: Empirical/ Review JEL Classification: B1, B19. Keywords: Time Hierarchy Theory, Historical Time, Art History Writing, Historical Time Perspective, Art History Periodization Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Tao, D.H; Xi, W. (2025). Art History Narrative and the Theory of Temporal Hierarchy, J. Mgt. Mkt. Review, 10(1), 55 – 64. https://doi.org/10.35609/jmmr.2025.10.1(4)
- Research Article
- 10.1515/jlt-2022-2020
- Apr 28, 2022
- Journal of Literary Theory
Even though it is well known that only very few buildings have been planned and built by individuals alone, dominant conceptions of art and architectural history still are shaped by the idea of a few, self-sufficient artistic personalities. However, the fact that the production of architecture is always integrated into societal and social contexts, i. e., that it always takes place in interaction with a variety of actors, has garnered scholarly attention in recent years. At the same time, there has been increasing interest, from the point of view of architectural practice, in considering different forms of collaborative work. One specific form of this collaborative approach to work is that of the collective. During the interwar period, in particular, this concept was influenced by the various protagonists of classical modernism; in most of its iterations, it is based on a socio-critical foundation questioning established hierarchies (including the construct of a formative author figure) as well as the conditions of living and working under capitalism. Instead, they conceive of building as a task to be taken on by society as a whole. This idea already was politicised in the early Soviet Union, where it went hand in hand with a centralised notion of the state. In the German Democratic Republic, also, government building policy was tied in with this notion, as is evident from GDR agencies organising the entire building process in collectives. This led, at least in part, to resentment (discussed more or less openly) among contemporary architects, whose self-image as creative workers had thus been called into question (a fact which found expression in various debates about the organisation of working methods and the role of the author or collective leader within the collective). Certain persistent difficulties in the practice of architectural and art history – those in assessing and valorising buildings from that era – also reflect this problem: Even today, dispensing with a clear attribution of authorship apparently still is difficult (though this phenomenon may also be attributed to a lack of knowledge and understanding as regards the organisational and working methods of collectives at that time. Starting from this problem, the present article focuses on the various processes that take place during the creation of a work of architecture. One of the questions to explored is whether there are – or have been, historically – specifically ›collective‹ ways of ›doing architecture‹. In order to focus on this question from another angle, the article also points out significant parallels (and differences) between the working methods and self-image of architecture and planning collectives, then and now. Initially, work in collectives appeared to have taken a backseat after German reunification – a circumstance due in part, possibly, to the association of collective working modes with the failed socialist utopia of the GDR. In more recent years, however, there has been renewed interest in the topic of collective work. Taking up ideas from the interwar period, these new collectives usually choose to inhabit a decidedly critical framework which questions both widespread working methods and production systems. Terms such as ›participation‹, ›multidimensionality‹, and ›inclusion‹ have become core concepts, expanding the focuses of ›classic‹ collectives with genuinely contemporary perspectives. Here also the question arises, however, as to how this new focus is reflected both in the concrete work and in dealing with the created object or with spatial interventions. In partial answer, the first part of this article derives the genesis of the term or concept of ›the collective‹ from its sources in architectural history, before taking a closer look at the specific form the collective took in the GDR. Next, an empirical analysis examines the working methods of two collectives active in the GDR and today, respectively, are examined and contextualised vis-à-vis the respective contemporary discourse on collective work. This empirical investigation focuses on the conflicts surrounding the so-called Zitronenpresse (›lemon squeezer‹) in Gera, East Germany, a café building planned and built between 1973 and 1978 by several architect collectives, before being demolished in 1997 and, finally, reconstructed in a spatial intervention by a planning collective. Throughout, the juxtaposition of different working methods – represented by the different collectives in their respective historical and social contexts – serves as a basis for the presentation of ideas and practices of collective working in in architecture and planning. A concluding analysis then summarises the similiarities and differences between the two collectives – for example, with regard to their hierarchical structure, modes of everyday cooperation, and divergent notions of authorship.
- Research Article
- 10.35609/gcbssproceeding.2024.1(90)
- Sep 9, 2024
- Global Conference on Business and Social Sciences Proceeding
This research explores the relationship between art History Narrative and the theory of temporal hierarchy, particularly the application of historical time in art history research. The article draws on several representative viewpoints of historical time, such as the theory of historical cycles, the diversity of historical time, the temporalization of history, and the narrative of historical time. Combined with the method of historical hermeneutics, it analyzes the significance of the temporal hierarchy of history for the development of art History Narrative. The study explores the relationship and contemporary significance between art, history, and time perspectives from the perspectives of experiential space and expectancy. It explains how these concepts influence the writing of global art history. It delves into the deep historical motivations and visibility of formal principles hidden behind artistic phenomena. This study Attempts to discover the three-layer structure of "art history consciousness time view," exploring the construction process of art history view from the perspective of time and explaining the relationship between history and time from a new perspective of relevance, further elaborating on the latest trend of art History Narrative under the guidance of time hierarchy theory. This research provides new paths for thinking about art history research. Keywords: Time hierarchy theory; Historical time; art History Narrative; Historical time perspective; Art history periodization.
- Research Article
- 10.1162/afar_r_00672
- Aug 15, 2022
- African Arts
100 × Congo: A Century of Congolese Art in Antwerp
- Book Chapter
- 10.29085/9781783302024.027
- Oct 1, 2017
Introduction This chapter provides an overview of the practices, approaches and discourses that make up the diverse field of digital art history. The author first describes the general discourse around digital art history, exploring how art historians and arts information professionals have defined digital art history and positioned digital art history practices in relation to the broader field of art history. He then outlines specific tools and methods, offering examples of projects. Finally, he considers the role that art and design libraries, archives and museums can play in supporting scholars, students and the wider public in pursuing, creating and sharing digital art history projects. Art and design librarians and other arts information professionals have a critical role to play in the future of digital art history. Identifying what this role might be is especially difficult, as digital art history is a moving target, developing in relation to dynamic technologies that promise an increasing range of possibilities. However, by mapping out the past and present of the field, information professionals will be better equipped to respond strategically to technological developments and work together towards a future of strong digital art historical scholarship. The digital in art history Digital technologies undeniably occupy a prominent position in nearly all aspects of current art historical research activities, teaching and knowledge production. Although relatively few in the field self-identify as ‘digital’ art historians, essentially all art history scholars depend on digital technologies to carry out their work, including such ubiquitous tools as PowerPoint and online library catalogues. The digital image repository, though, is perhaps the most significant digital resource to date for art history scholarship. Drucker (2013) refers to this phase of building up repositories of digital resources as digitized art history, work that has included scanning analogue images and crafting metadata descriptions. This work has also laid the foundation for what Drucker distinguishes as digital art history: the application of digital methods and computational analysis to the study of artworks and other art history research materials. With this still-growing infrastructure of digital resources, art historians can use computational tools to investigate objects of art historical research to new ends.
- Research Article
- 10.1176/appi.ajp.162.12.2415
- Dec 1, 2005
- American Journal of Psychiatry
History of Italian Renaissance Art, 5th ed.
- Research Article
7
- 10.1080/01973762.2019.1555351
- Feb 11, 2019
- Visual Resources
Digital art history is currently moving into a new phase. As a result of the ongoing digitization of artifacts and the creation of large digital repositories that bring together literary sources, images, as well as historical and technical data, new perspectives point to data mining and data/image processing. This article reviews some of the main data and image bases that deal with technical and material studies on works of art. The work-in-progress, Technical Data/Image Base on Caravaggio and His Followers, of the Max Planck Institut für Kunstgeschichte/Bibliotheca Hertziana (Rome, Italy) is presented within a historical and theoretical framework, describing the establishment of technical research in art history and the role played as early as 1930 by the International Conference for the Study of Scientific Methods in the Examination and Conservation of Artworks (Rome). The state of the art of technical research on the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi, Il Caravaggio (1571–1610) and its critical issues are also sketched out, and the nature of the scientific information provided by digital multispectral imaging is considered within a brief review of the history of technical images.
- Research Article
- 10.1177/002182861404500111
- Feb 1, 2014
- Journal for the History of Astronomy
Influences: Art, Optics, and Astrology in the Italian Renaissance. Mary QuinlanMcGrath (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2013). Pp. xii + 284. $35. ISBN 978-0-226-92284-3.What is transmitted to the viewer looking up at monumental vault paintings in Renaissance Italy? More than one can see, the art historian May Quinlan-McGrath argues in Influences - at least according to the makers, patrons, and viewers of these paintings. Visual communication was not even the primary purpose of these images. Transmitting the celestial rays trapped in the images, the vault paintings were thought to have quasi-magical qualities. Even for those viewers insufficiently equipped intellectually to be aware of the meanings of the astronomical images, the vault paintings had a restorative, even an apotropaic function. In short, by harnessing celestial influences, the images held power over their viewers. This is the book's central argument.The book draws upon scholarship in two disciplines, the history of science and the history of art. In the past two decades historians of science have re-habilitated the history of astrology. Among many other scholars, Robert Westman, Darrel Rutkin, and most recently, Monica Azzolini (in a book on political uses of astrology at the court in Milan, a context directly relevant to Quinlan-McGrath's Influences) have shown and illustrated the ubiquity and centrality of astrological practice in early modem science and society. Quinlan-McGrath is clearly familiar with this scholarship and uses it to her benefit in the opening chapters of the book. A second body of scholarship on which Quinlan-McGrath builds broadens the scope of art history to include the study of all images, 'high art' or not. Bildwissenschaft comes in many guises, and as a consequence, images and image theories are now studied in multiple ways, disciplines and contexts. One defining moment in the history of Bildwissenschaft has been David Freedberg's study of the history and theory of response to images: The power of images (1989). Quinlan-MacGrath's book proposes a marriage between these two bodies of scholarship. One of its central tenets is that the power of images had a physical basis, and that we need to turn to the history of astrology and the way in which it connects to optics to understand the physics of rays.Within this wide field the book has a clear focus. Its protagonist is the Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino. Quinlan-McGrath links Ficino's image theory to three monumental vault paintings commissioned by patrons who knew Ficino personally or shared his circle of friends. The first vault was in the villa of Agostino Chigi, the papal banker close to Leo X, the Medici pope who was a pupil of Ficino. Leo X commissioned the second astrological vault under discussion in the Sala dei Pontifici in the Vatican. The third case is the vault of the Sala della Cosmografia in the Famese family's villa at Caprarola. Having previously published articles on these vaults in journals such as Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes and Isis, QuinlanMcGrath only touches on them direcdy in the eighth and final chapter. …
- Research Article
- 10.24193/subbhistart.2020.06
- Dec 15, 2020
- Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Historia Artium
"„Sok szíves üdvözlettel régi barátos...” (“With kind regards, your old friend...”). Coriolan Petranu’s Friendly Connections to the Hungarian Historians. Coriolan Petranu is the founder of modern art history education and scientific research in Transylvania. He had received special education in this field of study that is relatively new in the region. He started his studies in 1911 at the University of Budapest, attending courses in law and art history. During the 1912-1913 academic year he joined the class of Professor Adolph Goldschmiedt (1863-1944) at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin. The professor was an illustrious personality from the same generation as art historians Emil Mâle, Wilhelm Vögte, Bernard Berenson, Roger Fry, Aby Warburg, and Heinrich Wölfflin, specialists who had provided a decisive impetus to art historical research during the twentieth century. In the end of 1913, Coriolan Petranu favored Vienna, with its prestigious art historical school attached to the university from the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There he completed and perfected his education under the supervision of Professor Josef Strzygowski (1862-1941). The latter scholar was highly appreciated for his contributions to the field of universal art history by including the cultures of Asia Minor (Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Persia), revealing the influence that this area had on proto-Christian art, as well as by researching ancient art in Northern Europe. In March 1920 the young art historian successfully defended his doctoral dissertation entitled Inhaltsproblem und Kunstgeschichte (”Content and art history”). He thus earned his doctor in philosophy title that opened him access to higher education teaching and art history research. His debut was positively marked by his activity as museographer at the Fine Art Museum in Budapest (Szepműveszeti Muzeum) in 1917-1918. Coriolan Petranu has researched Romanian vernacular architecture (creating a topography of wooden churches in Transylvania) and his publications were appreciated, published in the era’s specialized periodicals and volumes or presented during international congresses (such as those held in Stockholm in 1933, Warsaw in 1933, Sofia in 1934, Basel in 1936 and Paris in 1937). The Transylvanian art historian under analysis has exchanged numerous letters with specialists in the field. The valuable lot of correspondence, comprising several thousands of letters that he has received from the United States of America, Great Britain, Spain, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, the USSR, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Egypt represents a true history of the stage and development of art history as a field of study during the Interwar Period. The archive of the Art History Seminary of the University in Cluj preserves one section dedicated to Hungarian letters that he has send to Hungarian specialists, art historians, ethnographers, ethnologists or colleagues passionate about fine art (Prof. Gerevich Tibor, Prof. Takács Zoltán, Dr. Viski Károly, Count Dr. Teleki Domokos). His correspondence with Fritz Valjavec, editor of the “Südostdeutsche Forschungen” periodical printed in München, is also significant and revealing. The letters in question reveal C. Petranu’s significant contribution through his reviews of books published by Hungarian art historians and ethnographers. Beyond the theoretical debates during which Prof. Petranu has criticized the theories formulated by Prof. Gerevich’s school that envisaged the globalization of Hungarian art between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period and that also included in this general category the works of German masters and artists with other ethnic backgrounds, he has also displayed a friendly attitude and appreciation for the activity/works of his Hungarian colleagues (Viski Károly and Takács Zoltán). The previously unpublished Romanian-Hungarian and Hungarian-Romanian set of letters discussed here attest to this. Keywords: Transylvania, correspondence, vernacular architecture, reviews, photographs, Gerevich Tibor, Dr. Viski Károly "
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