art history

The study of works of art. German archaeologist Johann Winckelmann laid the foundations for a systematic study of art history as early as the mid-18th century, but it did not become an academic discipline until 1844 when a chair was established at Berlin University. Two basic approaches had emerged by the end of the 19th century: the first considered art in relation to its cultural or social context (Jacob Burckhardt, Hippolyte Taine); the second sought to analyse works of art in terms of such ‘formal’ properties as colour, line, and form (Heinrich Wölfflin). A later approach, rejecting the formalism of Wölfflin, concentrated on iconography, the study of the meaning of works of art (Erwin Panofsky, Emille Mâle).