Journal of Art Historiography (Dec 2019)
The place of the Vienna school of art history in Polish art historiography of the interwar period
Abstract
The importance of the Vienna school for establishing the foundations of art history as an independent discipline was recognised in Poland during the interwar period. Yet the term ‘school’ was hardly ever used. Since the main core of Polish scholarship did not move beyond Sedlmayr’s erste Kunstwissenschaft, no conclusions regarding the attitudes of the discipline were analysed or cited. In spite of the full awareness of the theoretical contributions of Riegl and Dvořák, references were made rather to the output of practical researchers, while models for research procedures were taken from Tietze’s textbook. Kunstgeschichte als Geistesgeschichte in its pure form was not particularly popular in Poland. Władysław Podlacha developed the psychological interpretation of the work of art, but including only partly within its scope investigation into the spiritual foundations of an epoch. There is no trace of any of Polish scholars’ taking interest in the so-called younger school of Vienna.
