Karl Schnaase

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Portrait of Karl Schnaase.

Karl Schnaase (7 September 1798 � 20 May 1875) was a distinguished German art
historian and jurist. He was one of the founders of modern art history, and the
author of one of the first surveys of the history of art.

Contents
1 Life
2 Legacy
3 References
4 Sources
5 External links
Life
Schnaase was born in Danzig (Gdansk) in West Prussia. As a law student at the
University of Heidelberg, Schnaase attended the lectures of Hegel on philosophy in
the spring of 1817. In the fall of 1818 he followed Hegel to the University of
Berlin, where he attended the lectures that would become the Encyclopedia of the
Philosophical Sciences. However, his philosophical studies were cut short when he
passed his first juristic exam in July 1819, and received a position in the
municipal court of Danzig. Before returning to Danzing, Schnaase travelled to
Dresden, and was deeply impressed by the art collections of that city.

For much of the 1820s Schnaase was employed as an assessor in K�nigsberg, while
maintaining his interest in art. From 1826 through 1827 he embarked on a year-long
journey through Italy, visiting Rome, Naples, Florence, and Milan, among other
cities. At the end of his journey he hiked through the Tyrol and the Bavarian Alps
to Munich, where he became ill.

Settled once again in K�nigsberg, Schnaase began to plan a book based on his
Italian journey, which was however never completed. In 1828 his legal career took
him to Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), and in 1829 south again to D�sseldorf, whence he was
able to acquaint himself with the medieval monuments of the Rhineland. He also
found in the Rhineland a more congenial society in which to pursue his interest in
art history, and in particular developed a friendship with Gottfried Kinkel.

In summer 1830 Schnaase travelled through the Low Countries; his examination of the
monuments there led to his first major publication, the Niederl�ndische Briefe
(Dutch letters), which appeared in 1834. Although written in the form of a
conventional travel narrative, the Briefe constituted in fact a major contribution
to the theoretical literature on art history. As Michael Podro has written,
Schnaase's first book

is the principal transposition of Hegel's thought into the general discussion of

the development of art.... In his Niederl�ndische Briefe Schnaase responded to two
difficulties in Hegel's Aesthetics; the assumption that past works of art were
definitively understood from the point of view of the present, and that art was
representative of its culture than contributing to it. The way in which he did this
dominated one critical tradition for the next hundred years.[1]

In brief, Schnaase argued that the various periods of art history were
interconnected, and indeed mutually illuminating. Thus the modern historian can
most fully understand a given monument through consideration of what had come
before and what would follow. He wrote
I begin to feel in each section of the past its present together with its future.
In this way clear and exact historical consideration leads to higher aesthetic
realisation... which feels in the beauty of each individual period its connection
with the others.[2]

The contemporary viewer is further benefited by his ability to view an artwork, not
as an object with a particular function, but as material for purely aesthetic
contemplation. The contemplation of art as detached from its function allows the
historian to view art as autonomous from, or indeed constitutive of, cultural
developments.

The Niederl�ndische Briefe therefore provided the intellectual justification for

art history as an autonomous discipline, and indeed Schnaase's next major project
was the composition of his monumental Geschichte der bildenden K�nste (History of
the fine arts). He was able to pursue this project despite his continuing
employment as a jurist. As he neared completion of the first volume, however,
Schnaase was surprised by the appearance of a Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte
(Handbook of art history) (1841) by Franz Theodor Kugler. Kugler's work, which he
claimed to be "the first comprehensive survey of art"[3] seemed to duplicate
Schnaase's project. Schnaase became convinced, however, that if Kugler was his
better in technical matters, he could still offer a unique, general viewpoint of
the development of art. The first two volumes, on ancient near eastern and on
classical art, respectively, were published in 1843, and dedicated to Kugler.

Schnaase's work was distinguished from Kugler's by its "Hegelian desire to write a
history of art as a history of the mentality of the human race, an endeavor
specifically disavowed by Kugler."[4] The first volume of his Geschichte began with
a lengthy treatise on aesthetics, indicating a philosophical inclination that was
criticized in reviews by both Kugler and Gustav Friedrich Waagen.

Despite this critical skepticism, and a new appointment to the court of appeals in
Berlin in 1848, Schnaase continued to produce new volumes of his Geschichte. A
volume on early Christian and Islamic art appeared in 1844; one on "the actual
middle ages" in 1850; the Gothic in 1856; the late Middle Ages in 1861; and
medieval Italian art in 1864. At this point, instead of continuing his survey into
the Renaissance, Schnaase began work on a second edition of the existing work. He
was aided in the revision by a number of prominent art historians. It has been
suggested that Schnaase stopped where he did "because of the appearance of Jacob
Burckhardt's equally contextual works on the Renaissance as well as... the
areligious attitudes of the modern era."[5]

Schnaase retired from his legal commitments in 1857, and received a series of
awards in honor of his art-historical achievements, including an honorary doctorate
from the University of Bonn and the Order of Maximilian from the King of Bavaria.

Later in life Schnaase became increasingly preoccupied by the relationship between

art and religion. He was among the founders of the Verein f�r religi�se Kunst in
der evangelischen Kirche (Society for Religious Art in the Lutheran Church) and a
co-editor of the Christliche Kunstblatt (Journal for Christian Art). Two of his
lectures on this subject were published: �ber das Verh�ltniss der Kunst zum
Christenthum (On the relationship of art to Christianity) (1852) and Bildung und
Christenthum (Education and Christianity) (1861).

Schnaase continued to travel across Europe until the end of his life, despite his
increasingly poor health. He died in Wiesbaden in 1875.

Legacy
Schnaase's work was of tremendous importance for the development of art history as
an autonomous discipline. His Geschichte facilitated the teaching of art in German-
speaking countries, and his theoretical concerns and formulations influenced a
number of later art historians. Among these, Alois Riegl may have been the most
influenced by Schnaase's thought; Riegl's theory of the Kunstwollen was deeply
indebted to Schnaase's Niederl�ndische Briefe.[6]

References
M. Podro, The critical historians of art (New Haven, 1982), 31.
K. Schnaase, Niederl�ndische Briefe (Stuttgart, 1834), 418-19, tr. M. Podro, The
critical historians of art (New Haven, 1982), 33.
M. Schwarzer, "Origins of the art history survey text," Art Journal 54 (1995), 25.
M. Schwarzer, "Origins of the art history survey text," Art Journal 54 (1995), 26.
M. Schwarzer, "Origins of the art history survey text," Art Journal 54 (1995), 29
n.35.
M. Podro, The critical historians of art (New Haven, 1982), 96.
Sources
W. L�bke, "Carl Schnaase, biographische Skizze," in C. Schnaase, Geschichte der
bildenden K�nste im 15. Jahrhundert, ed. W. L�bke (Stuttgart, 1879), xv-lxxxiv.
Available online.
M. Podro, The critical historians of art (New Haven, 1982), 31-43.
M. Schwarzer, "Origins of the art history survey text," Art Journal 54 (1995), 24-
29. Available online.[permanent dead link]
External links
Text of Schnaase's Geschichte.
Schnaase at the Biographical Dictionary of Art Historians.
"Schnaase, Karl". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
Authority control
WorldCat Identities BNF: cb10331272z (data) GND: 100267904 ISNI: 0000 0001 0916
3496 LCCN: no2012033031 RKD: 426676 SELIBR: 314741 SUDOC: 151780382 VIAF: 74194170
Categories: 1798 births1875 deathsGerman art historiansPeople from GdanskPeople
from West PrussiaGerman male writersMembers of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for
Science and Art
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