Page - 263 - in Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, Volume LIX

sedlmayr and schapiro correspond 263 cal as Schapiro charged, but he answers in this not to his discipline but to God. It is almost as if Sedlmayr opted for one of Schapiro’s alterna- tive explanations for the mystical/mythical ex- planations in Andreades’ essay: Auch unannehm- bar sind Adrandes [sic] liturgische- theologische Spekulationen die rein deduktiv sind und imagi- naere aesthetisch-pietistische Gestaltungen (Wenn Andreades nicht religioes ist, dann kann man diese Bemuehungen als aesthetische-Laien-Pietismus oder aesthetische religions-anschauung.) In his own de- fence Sedlmayr may have argued that he had al- ways thought this way - that is to say, that his Ca- tholicism was always compatible with National Socialism.83 83 Wilhelm Schlink, a student of Sedlmayr’s after the war recalled that Sedlmayr “imagined an art historical period always in its relation to God,” and that “This restrained him from overdrawn nationalist or racist art historical posi- tions – the destiny and misery of so many of his art historian colleagues.” Schlink, Gothic Cathedral (cit. n. 2), p. 276. Illustration credits: fig. 1, 2: Meyer Schapiro Collections, 1919–2006. Box 166, folder 13. Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the city of New York.