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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.
Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte
Volume LIX
Entnommen aus der FWF-E-Book-Library
- Title
- Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte
- Volume
- LIX
- Editor
- Bundesdenkmalamt Wien
- Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Wien
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2011
- Language
- German, English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-78674-0
- Size
- 19.0 x 26.2 cm
- Pages
- 280
- Keywords
- research, baroque art, methodology, modern art, medieval art, historiography, Baraock, Methodolgiem, Kunst, Wien
- Category
- Kunst und Kultur