Page - 239 - in Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, Volume LIX

sedlmayr and schapiro correspond 239 Kaschnitz, Brunoff, Fürst, Wilde, Kris. This is the volume (with essays by Sedlmayr, Pächt, Kaschnitz, Hirsch, Alpatoff, and Kaufmann) which Schapiro would review in 1936.17 By fall (24 September 1931) the yearbook’s future was uncertain and Sedlmayr asks Schapiro instead for a contribution to the ‘Kritische Berichte’, edited by Bruno Fürst. The letters written in 1931–32, at times month- ly, are full of recommendations of literature in art history and other disciplines, comments on those recommendations, on method, and on work in progress. 14 April 1931 Sedlmayr calls Schapiro’s attention to the work on metaphor, structural laws, and empathy of Heinz Werner;18 and he has received a brief acknowledgment of the receipt of one of his essays from Sidney Hook (a close friend of Schapiro and future co-member of the anti- Stalinist leftist “New York intellectuals”19) who wrote him a few lines that show that die bestehende Situation und ihr Mangel [können] überall in gleich- er Weise empfunden werden. ‘We have either pure- form platonists or bare material sociologists. The sense of the intimate connection between the two is lacking.’ In diesem Satz kann man für das ‘We’ immer noch auch unsere deutsche Kunstwissenschaft einsetzen. Panofsky, who Sedlmayr notes is now teach- ing in the U.S.,20 is both admired and criticized: Ich glaube dass aus diesem grossen Reservoir, wenn es richtig erschlossen wird, sehr starke Kräfte für die kommende Kunstwissenschaft gewonnen werden könnten. […] Bei aller Hochachtung für den wis- senschaftlichen Ernst Panofskys, würde ich aber doch fürchten, dass er zu sehr von dem anschauli- chen konkreten Kunstwerk auf eine ‘Idea’ hinlenkt – zumal für Anfänger. Der Platonismus ist eine entsetzliche Gefahr für die Kunstbetrachtung. In a letter dated (insecurely) to 2 May [1931]21 Sedlmayr expresses his admiration for Michael Alpatoff’s essay on a relief of St. Demetrios and a structural analysis of Poussin’s self-portrait the same author is preparing for the next issue of the ‘KWF’. At this point Schapiro has offered to review the volume (and he would agree with Sedlmayr’s positive view of this essay). In this let- ter Sedlmayr mentions numerous projects of his own, including already some work on Ein Bild- prinzip des Bruegel. Schapiro has recommended the work of Sidney Hook, and Sedlmayr says he will read an essay by him. He is excited about the work of his Studienfreund Otto Pächt on the types of illusion in post-Medieval painting and new discoveries of national constants. Summer of 1931 (12 July 1931) Sedlmayr asks Schapiro (who is in Europe) to help his col- leagues in Russia, Alpatoff and Brunoff, to send 17 Volume II of the ‘KWF’ had the following articles: Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg, Bemerkungen zur Struktur der ägyptischen Plastik; Hans Sedlmayr, Das erste mittelalterliche Architektursystem; Otto Pächt, Gestaltungsprinzi- pien der westlichen Malerei des 15. Jahrhunderts; Maria Hirsch, Das Figurenalphabet des Meisters E. S., Michail Vladimirovic Alpatov, Das Selbstbildnis Poussins im Louvre, Emil Kaufmann, Die Stadt des Architekten Ledoux. 18 Werner is considered one of the foundation developmental psychologists. See J. Valsiner, Heinz Werner and deve- lopmental science, New York 2005. 19 A. Hemingway, Meyer Schapiro and Marxism in the 1930s, in: Oxford Art Journal, 17, 1994, p. 13. 20 Panofsky first came to New York in 1931. 21 The year does not appear on the letter. I have dated it tentatively to 1931 based on the publication dates of essays mentioned in the letter and the address (Sedlmayr moved from the Weimarerstrasse in 1931 to the Landhausgasse) but they are not consistent. A reference to M. Alpatoff, Eine byzantinische Reliefikone des hlg. Demetnos in Moskau, in: Belvedere, 1933 appears alongside the “recent” publication of the dissertation of B. Fürst, Beiträge zu einer Geschichte der österreichischen Plastik in der 1. Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1931. He also says Ich sehe in der neuen philosophischen Zeitschrift ‘Erkenntnis’ an essay by Sidney Hook. He refers to the reprint of an essay by S. Hook Ein persönlicher Eindruck von zeitgenössischer deutscher Philosophie, that originally appeared in Journal of Philosophy, 1930 in the Rundschau in the first issue of Erkenntnis, 1, 1930/1931, pp. 83–88. He also notes that one of his essays will probably appear in the Preussischen Jahrbuch which would be published as H. Sedlmayr, Die Area Capitolina des Michelangelo, in: Jahrbuch der Preußischen Kunstsammlungen, 52, 1931, pp. 176–180.