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368 Matthew Rampley as a formative influence on Eitelberger, which Julius Schlosser first highlighted in his account of the Vienna School of art history.10 Recent research has begun to establish a clearer picture of Böhm’s career as an artist as well as his broader art historical signifi- cance. For the present discussion, his most important activity lay in the afternoon salons he organized, and which were attended by young scholars, art dealers and collectors who constituted the so-called Böhm Kreis  – the Böhm circle. Eitelberger later testified to the decisive impact of these meetings on his artistic interests. He had a particular concern with medieval art and architecture, for example ; some of his most extensive art historical works were on medieval architectural heritage, and this was undoubtedly due in part to Böhm. For the latter was a contemporary and close friend of the painter Friedrich Over- beck (1789–1869) and other artists of the Nazarene circle, and his art historical interest in the Middle Ages reflected a shared desire to reform contemporary artistic practice by reviving the intertwining of art and religious faith of medieval Catholicism.11 At the core of the salon was discussion of art, more specifically, discussion of individ- ual works of art in Böhm’s extensive personal art collection. In contrast to the more con- noisseurial interests of many private collectors, Böhm regarded his collection as having a didactic role : the gatherings were a form of pedagogy, and this informed his decisions on collecting. Rather than purchasing works on the basis of their individual appeal and quality alone, he built up a collection that was representative of the history of European art.12 In an extensive obituary on Böhm written in 1865, Eitelberger described the basic approach of the meetings : an inductive history of art, starting out with close observa- tion of the technical, formal and symbolic features of an individual artwork and then 10 J. von Schlosser, Die Wiener Schule der Kunstgeschichte : Rückblick auf ein Säkulum deutscher Gelehrtenarbeit in Österreich, in : Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Instituts für Geschichts- forschung, Suppl. vol.  13, 1934, 2, pp.  145–210. Understanding of Böhm’s career and oeuvre has been considerably enhanced by the recent work of Andrea Mayr. See A. Mayr, Joseph Daniel Böhm (1794–1865) : Bildhauer, k. k. Kammermedailleur, Direktor der Graveurakademie am Hauptmün- zamt, Kunstsammler, Vienna, Unpublished Diploma Thesis, 2012. See also Andrea Mayr’s essay in the present volume. 11 See, for example, R. Eitelberger von Edelberg/G. Heider/J. Hieser (eds.), Mittelalterliche Kunstdenkmale des Österreichischen Kaiserstaates, Stuttgart 1858–1860 ; R. Eitelberger von Edelberg, Die mittelalterlichen Kunstdenkmale Dalmatiens in Arbe, Zara, Tra., Spalato und Ra- gusa : Aufgenommen und dargestellt vom Architekten W. Zimmermann, in : Jahrbuch der k. k. Cen- tral-Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale, 5, 1861, pp.  129–312. On the Nazarenes see C. Grewe, The Nazarerenes : Romantic Avant-Garde and the Art of the Concept, University Park, PA  2015. 12 The works are listed in the catalogue of the auction held in 1867 to sell off Böhm’s collection. See A. Posonyi, Versteigerung der Kunst-Sammlung des am 15.  August 1865 verstorbenen k. k. Kammer-Me- dailleurs und Director der k. k. Münz-Graveur-Akademie, Herrn Jos. Dan. Böhm, Vienna 1865. Open Access © 2019 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN