Page - 216 - in Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, Volume LIX

Erica Tietze-conrat216 so that we could see it and described the object; beat a tattoo with his glasses against the solid photograph. In his course on Baroque the al- ternation of the optic and haptic in a façade impressed itself into our consciousness with the time beating of a conductor. The introductory lines which he read had the kind of laconic force one would never forget; one listened holding ones breath. A loosening of concentration was needed and gratefully welcomed in the follow- ing description of the object. The dogma and its explaining example, Southern and Northern Ba- roque: heightened emotion and heightened mo- tion, heightened emotion and restricted motion; Bernini, Rembrandt. Riegl expressly avoided a bigger audience by scheduling his lectures at hours most awkward for the students, his seminar for instance between 12 and 2. We had to eat before noon, an unusually early hour in Vienna, since in these years before the First World War there was no lunch, only a midday dinner. It was difficult to concentrate fighting against an after-eating-sleepiness. And when we postponed the meal for after the lecture we had again difficulties to concentrate in the sec- ond hour because of the gnawing hunger. Riegl’s seminar was a dialogue which he held with him- self. He was hard of hearing and, did not want a discussion with a pupil. He chose the […] of Bernini, slowly read a passage and commented on it himself. The impression which this alternation of text and comment gave to the ear was simi- lar to that of his lectures, but principally differ- ent as far as the content was concerned. The text was not the conclusion but an external statement which had to be questioned; the loosening up into Riegl’s accentuated improvised speech was not the text’s example but its clarification. The musical al- ternation only of two differently oriented voices had the same impressive effect. I do not want to be misunderstood; there was nothing theatrical in Riegl’s method, no show-man ship at all. The older students were not a great help ei- ther. Hans Tietze, member of the Institute, had his desk downstairs. But among the direct col- leagues there was a prodigy who of course could have helped us, but was far too jealous and con- ceited to do so, Robert Eisler36. He was the first of my colleagues I was able to individualize. His name was known to me. The summer before, he had played a minor role as an amateur pho- tographer in a kind of social scandal which took place in one of our lake resorts. Eisler looked like a well groomed, quasi ironed-out philoso- pher Moses Mendelssohn. His complexion was so mealy, neither eyes nor brows contrasted with his highly freckled skin. None of us colleagues liked him, but we all were with awe before him. In high school he had already published a book on the theory of value37 and during his early stu- dent years an article on Mantegna38 which in my monograph on this artist’s work39 I accepted. In this article he gave his title as “fellow” of the Institute consciously wrongly translating his modest title “Mitglied”. The only colleague of mine who saw more of him was L. von Ficker40 […]. He was not an art historian at heart, but decided to make his “doctor” in a seemingly eas- ier field, since his father, a famous professor of Law in Innsbruck41 in his last will had decreed to disinherit him in case he did not finish his University studies before a certain time. L. von Ficker’s interest was more in literature, especially poetry, than in art. We tried to supply him with 36 Robert Eisler, geb. am 27.4. 1882 in Wien, gest. am 17. 12. 1949 in England. 37 R. Eisler, Studien zur Werttheorie, Leipzig 1902. 38 R. Eisler, Mantegnas frühe Werke und die römische Antike, in: Monatsberichte über Kunst und Kunstwissen- schaft, München 1903, S. 159–169. 39 E. Tietze-Conrat, Mantegna, Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, London 1955. 40 Ludwig von Ficker, geb. am 13.4.1880 in München, gest. am 20.3 1967 in Innsbruck. 41 Julius von Ficker (1826–1902) war Jurist und Historiker.