Artists and craftsmen have been producing masterpieces for centuries and it is from contemporaneous writings, describing both the works and the artists responsible, that we get a more complete picture of the periods and people in the history of art. Art historians analyze not only individual objects, but the social, political, economic, religious and philosophical contexts in which they were created. One of the most interesting things about the discipline is that it comprises, to some extent, a variety of humanities and sciences as a means to an end. You are being educated on far more than an object when you study the history of art.
Information about art historians, past and present, can be hard to find. However, databases, such as the Dictionary of Art Historians, are a great resource when it comes to historiography (the study of historical writing). The Dictionary provides an introduction to the methodology, scholarship, and background of major art historians of western art history. Below, we’ve highlighted four individuals whose writings have made a huge impact in the study of the history of art:
“True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it.” -Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman military commander, natural historian and encyclopedist. His greatest body of work, the Naturalis Historia, is one of the largest single collections to survive from the Roman Empire, and covers all aspects of knowledge. Pliny purportedly consulted roughly one hundred authors when covering the nearly twenty thousand subjects he claims to elucidate in his 37-volume collection. Naturalis Historia covers the sciences of the natural world- geography, biology, physiology, minerology, etc.- however, he also devoted portions to the study of religion and literature as well as fine arts, painting and sculpture. His writings became an important source for information on society and art in ancient Greek and Rome.
“Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands.” -Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was an Italian painter, architect and historian. In Florence, his contemporaries included artists such as Adrea del Sarto, Jacopo Pontormo and his friend Michelangelo Buonarroti. His architectural projects may be viewed as more successful than his painting, and he is responsible for the renovations of both Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce in Florence, as well as the loggia of the Uffizi Palace. He enjoyed the constant patronage from the Medici family and one of his architectural projects was the Vasari Corridor, an elevated passageway that connects the Uffizi Palace with the Pitti Palace, commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1564. Vasari’s most notable written work is his Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori (Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), most often referred to as The Lives of the Artists. The second edition, published in 1568 is the version for which Vasari achieved fame. This chronological encyclopedia of Renaissance artist biographies, peppered with anecdotes and bias, nevertheless has become one of the definitive collections of biography and analysis in art, that has appealed to enthusiasts for generations.
“Grace can never properly be said to exist without beauty; for it is only in the elegant proportions of beautiful forms that can be found that harmonious variety of line and motion which is the essence and charm of grace.” -Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) is often labeled the “father” of modern day art history. He was born in Germany, the son of a poor cobbler, and pursued studies at the University of Halle. Although he had intentions of being a physician, his love of Greek literature and art lead him in a different direction. His appointment circa 1748 as librarian for Count Heinrich von Bünau exposed him to the great classical written works, as well as sculpture. He later became librarian and prefect of antiquities at the Vatican. After years of study, Winckelmann’s masterpiece, History of the Art of Antiquity, was published in 1764 and positioned him as the foremost scholar of the ancient Egyptians, Etruscans, Romans and, predominantly, the Greeks. The text gave momentum to the neoclassical movement and served as a foundation for the study of art and archaeology as a modern academic discipline.
“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.” -Horace Walpole
Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717-1797), was an English politician, intellectual, author and art historian. He was born the son of British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, and after attending Eton and Cambridge, embarked on his Grand Tour. Like his father, Walpole went into politics, serving as a Member of Parliament from 1741-1768. He was a poet and novelist, and had his own printing press at Strawberry Hill, a “little Gothic castle” in Twickenham which he renovated for more than 30 years and, as a chronic collector, filled it with antiquities, fine art and furniture. Apart from his works of fiction, Walpole published collections of observations, memoirs and letters. These included Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors of England (1758), Anecdotes of Painting in England, and A Catalogue of Engravers (1762-1771). The correspondence contained in The Letters of Horace Walpole, although amateur and superficial, have been described by biographer J. H. Plumb as “one of the most precious works of reference for eighteenth-century British history,” giving us insight into the political, social and domestic climate of the time. His accounts of the architecture and furnishings of important homes give us indispensable descriptions of their interiors and paint vivid portraits of their residents.
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