German Art History and Scientific Thought: Beyond Formalism, (Hardcover)

A fresh contribution to the ongoing debate between Kunstwissenschaft (scientific study of art) and Kunstgeschichte (art history), this essay collection explores how German-speaking art historians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century self-consciously generated a field of study. Prominent North American and European scholars provide new insights into how a mixing of diverse methodologies took place, in order to gain a more subtle and comprehensive understanding of how art history became institutionalized and legitimized in Germany. The essays provide illuminating treatments of art history's prior and understudied interactions with a wide range of scientific orientations, from psychology, sociology and physiognomics, to evolutionism and comparative anatomy.