The Transnational History of Art History

Starting with the global reception of Heinrich Wölfflin's Principles of Art History and the ongoing publication of his Collected Works, this Research Priority conceives the history of art history in a transnational perspective as a migration of ideas, texts, and the authors themselves. A further component is a critical reflection on the globalization of historical and contemporary research methods and technologies. Exploring early scholarship on Indian art, for example, leads to new questions about form and formalism, the role of geometric abstraction as a modern universal language of art, and artistic research and art history, which have their roots in classical Italian art and art theory. The goal is to inspire a critical history of methods, theory, and research that places Italian art, architecture, and art theory of the early modern period in the focus of transnational aesthetic discourses and within the framework of a geography of concepts and terms. The Department aims to support the methodological innovation of the Institute’s research practices and to expand them to Feminism and Gender Studies, post- and decolonial approaches, the history of art history, an iconology of mediums, materials and techniques, Digital Humanities, Eco-Criticism, and Disability Studies. Thus, this Research Priority intersects with all the others in the Department.