‘Marian Sokołowski: patriotism and the genesis of scientific art history in Poland’

Abstract

Marian Sokołowski (1839–1911), the first occupant of a chair in art history at a Polish university, is often referred to as ‘the father of Art History in Poland.’ Yet, in many respects his work and his approach to the discipline has largely fallen into oblivion, even in Poland. Although regarded as a ‘pioneer’ Sokołowski is frequently regarded as little more than an epigone of the Viennese School or as scholar driven primarily by the patriotic feelings that were the result of the partition of Poland during the nineteenth century. This article undertakes a detailed study of his writing; although he did not develop an explicit theoretical or methodological position, a coherent model of art historical practice underlay his scholarly enterprise, drawing on a combination of contextual study, cultural history and the typological analysis of forms. The article analyses that model and also examines its deep ideological engagement.

Keywords

• Marian Sokołowski
• Cracow
• positivism
• patriotism
• Wölfflin
• morphology
• biology