Johan Huizinga and Max Dvořák on images
Johan Huizinga and Max Dvořák on images

A shared interest in medieval images in and around 1919

Summary/Abstract: Huizinga’s contribution to the understanding of late medieval artistic cultures can be productively compared with the treatise Idealismus und Naturalismus in der gotischen Skulptur und Malerei, published in 1918 by the famous Viennese art historian Max Dvořák. My paper will focus on the polarity between naturalism/realism vs. idealism/symbolism clearly present in both texts. My comparison will focus on the following questions: 1. What was the exact meaning of the concepts? 2. How had they been rooted in various philosophical traditions? 3. How do they appear in the light of recent criticism?

• Details
• Contents