Two illuminated manuscripts of Revelation of John

Miscellaneous Articl

Aby Warburg’s and Fritz Saxl’s assessment of the ‘Wiener Schule’

The paper is an attempt to locate both scholars’ views in the discussion of the direction and scope of the ‘Wiener Schule’. Warburg, who corresponded with members of the ‘Wiener Schule’, and Saxl, who was trained by its teachers, whilst reading the important books of its members, never wanted to be drawn into their research agenda. Warburg was clear that he wanted to pursue a different form of ‘Kulturwissenschaft’, all but untranslatable into English, possibly approaching a term like cultural ‘science’. Saxl, whilst sympathetic to individual proponents of the ‘Wiener Schule’, realized that its analysis of artistic production would not be shared by scholars working in the KBW and/or the newly established university in Hamburg. The result was friendly coexistence in equidistance

Fritz Saxl - Eine Biografie

Aby Warburg (1866-1929), the celebrated Hamburg art historian, who broke new ground with his research into Renaissance art history, found in Fritz Saxl (1890-1948), art historian, head librarian and finally his successor as director of Warburg's library and later the Warburg Institute, a scholar who contributed to the shaping of a pluridisciplinary understanding of research. Through Saxl's research of problems of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages he gave important impulses to the scholarly understanding of intellectual history. Saxl, who extended the library system of the "good neighbourliness" of books, demonstrated his organizational thinking and strategies, which anticipated the use of hyperlinks - albeit without today's electronic technology. It was Saxl who turned Warburg's library from a private library into the centre of an international network for scholars. He spoke of himself as the wanderer through the museums and libraries of Europe, an agricultural worker who worked the piece of ground between history of art, literature, science and religion. Saxl's own research agenda was multifarious, the history of astrology, of mythology, in particular the research into illuminated astrological and mythological manuscripts of the Middle Ages, gleaned from archives all over Europe and published in three comprehensive Verzeichnisse. He further worked on religions of classical antiquity, the transition from pagan to Christian traditions, Mithras as well as art historical topics, Bellini, Titian. His life-long great admiration for Rembrandt found expession in a number of publications. 17th century art history, English medieval sculpture and his last great interest, seals, completed his scholarly output. But next to these research topics his achievements in the fields of organization were the area in which Saxl truly excelled. Warburg, although he spoke of him as the "junior partner", admired his scholarly honesty and thoroughness, but ultimately underestimated his achievements in administration and organization; these alone made it possible that the private library of Warburg could be consolidated into a internationally approved institute of teaching and research in Germany, and then in Great Britain. As Warburg's successor Saxl both kept as close as possible to Warburg's method as well as break fresh ground. Saxl was a truly original thinker, a congenial teacher, very demanding to his students and colleagues, but also fiercely supportive, for instance, to Roger Hinks, when he lost his post at the British Museum in the course of the affair of the cleaning of the Elgin Marbles. He employed Anthony Blunt as editor of the Warburg Institute publications, he brought Ernst H. Gombrich from Vienna to London in 1936. He was a great example to the young art historian John Pope-Hennessy, later Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. Today, the Warburg Institute is a post-graduate research institute specializing in researching cultural and intellectual history, a forum for scholars and students. The fact that teaching and research could be kept up in Hamburg until 1933 and resumed in London from 1934 onward, speaks for the personal commitment of the employees and above all for Saxl;s intellectual courage and sense for practical solutions. His unstinting effort and dedication were certainly reasons for Saxl's early death at 58 years of age.Der hamburgische Kunsthistoriker Aby Warburg (1866-1929), der mit seinen kulturwissenschaftlichen Ideen auf dem Gebiet der Renaissanceforschung federführend wurde, hatte in Fritz Saxl (1890-1948), Kunsthistoriker, später Bibliotheksleiter und Institutsdirektor, einen Wissenschaftler zur Seite, der Warburgs pluridisziplinäre Forschungsmethode mitprägte und institutionalisierte. Mit seinen eigenen Forschungen zu Fragen des späten Altertums und des Mittelalters gab Saxl entscheidende Impulse zum Wissenschaftsverständnis der Kulturwissenschaft. Saxl, der als Bibliothekar das Bibliothekssystem der "guten Nachbarschaft" der Bücher ausbaute, leistete damit einen weiteren Beweis seiner Denkstrategien, die Hyperlinks - ohne elektronische Technologie natürlich - vorwegnahmen. Er war es, der die Bibliothek Warburgs aus einem engen privaten Bibliotheksbetrieb herausschälte und sie zum Kern eines internationalen Netzwerkes für Wissenschaftler machte. Saxl selbst nannte sich einen Wanderer durch die Museen und Bibliotheken Europas, einen Landarbeiter, der das Stück Boden zwischen Kunstgeschichte, Literatur, Naturwissenschaft und Religion beackerte. Seine eigenen Forschungen erstreckten sich auf viele Gebiete, auf die auf Archivarbeiten in ganz Europa aufgebauten Untersuchungen zu illuminierten astrologischen und mythologischen Handschriften des Mittelalters, die in drei umfassenden Verzeichnissen ihren Niederschlag fanden; weiters stellte er Untersuchungen zu antiken Religionen, den Übergängen von paganer zur christlichen Tradition, Mithras sowie zu den venetianischen Malern Bellini und Tizian an. Sein großes Interesse galt Rembrandt sowie dem 17. Jahrhundert, englischen mittelalterlichen Skulpturen und Siegeln. Neben diesen wissenschaftlichen Leistungen bestechen die institutsorganisatorischen Aufgaben, in denen Saxl Großes geleistet hatte. Warburg, der von ihm als dem "Juniorpartner" sprach, schätzte dessen wissenschaftliche Ehrlichkeit und Gründlichkeit, aber verkannte letztlich die Leistungen auf administrativen und organisatorischen Gebieten, die alleine die Konsolidierung einer Privatbibliothek in ein international anerkanntes Lehr- und Forschungsinstrument in Deutschland, und dann ein zweites Mal in Großbritannien, ermöglicht hatten. Als Nachfolger Warburgs bemühte sich Saxl, den Problemstellungen Warburgs treuzubleiben sowie neue Wege zu gehen. Saxl forderte seine Studenten und Kollegen, setzte sich aber auch für sie ein, wie für Roger Hinks, der seinen Posten im British Museum im Zuge der Affäre um die Reinigung der Elgin Marbles verloren hatte. Er stellte Anthony Blunt als Herausgeber der Veröffentlichungen an, er holte sich Ernst H. Gombrich 1936 aus Wien. Er war das grosse Vorbild für den jungen Kunsthistoriker John Pope-Hennessy, später Direktor des Victoria and Albert Museum und des British Museum. Heute ist das Warburg Institute ein postgraduate Forschungsinstitut zur Erforschung der Ideengeschichte, ein Forum für Wissenschaftler wie Studenten. Dass bis zum Jahre 1933 in Hamburg und dann ab 1934 in London ein Studier-, Lehr- und Publikationsbetrieb aufrechterhalten werden konnte, spricht für das persönliche Engagement der Angestellten wie für deren unermüdlichem Einsatz sowie vor allem für Saxls intellektuellem Mut und Sinn für praktische Lösungen. Dieser Einsatz war mit ein Grund zu Saxls frühen Tod mit 58 Jahren

The regions of Adwa and Aksum, Qwälla and Bägemdər on the manuscript maps by Georg Wilhelm Schimper, 1864/65 and 1868

Within the framework of the ICES 18 conference topic of ‘movements’ a closer look at the role that maps, charts and textual descriptions of landscapes play, serves a particular important point: as mirrors of reality, as finding aids and as guiding aids. Human endeavour to orientate itself in the cosmos has led to important intellectual disciplines like astronomy on the one hand and religion on the other. To orientate oneself in the environment has led to equally important disciplines like geo..

Ethiopia Illustrated: Manuscripts and Painting in Ethiopia – Examples from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century

The newly published anthology Ethiopia Illustrated: Church Paintings, Maps and Drawings is a result of my appointment as Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences in 2017. The suggestion was aired to publish a volume with my research articles on Ethiopian manuscripts and paintings, which had previously appeared in a variety of journals accessible to readerships in Europe and North America, but which were not easily accessible in Ethiopia. Such a project necessitated obtaining perm..

Gospel Illuminations (Abstract)

Gospel Illuminations: Ethiopian paintings and their European models A monastery in Ethiopia houses a precious gospel book of c. 1650, in which all four gospels are richly illuminated. The paintings are skilfully executed by more than one painter, the colours are still vivid and well preserved. What makes this gospel book so extraordinarily important is the adoption of painting processes so far not seen in Ethiopian painting, a nascent use of perspective and the borrowing of visual props from ..

Gospel Illuminations. Ethiopian Paintings and their European Models

Contacts and comparisons: Idiosyncrasies in the illuminated tetraevangelium of Märtula Maryam.* Summary The Märtula Maryam Gospel Book, a manuscript book c. 1650, presents a blending of foreign ideas as seen in the Evangelium arabicum with Ethiopian usage and intermittent non-adherence to theologically approved traditional solutions. The language of European visual explanations was transformed and translated into Ethiopian indigenous solutions. This process should not be seen as ‘occidentali..

Aby Warburg’s and Fritz Saxl’s assessment of the ‘Wiener Schule’

The paper is an attempt to locate both scholars' views in the discussion of the direction and scope of the ‘Wiener Schule’. Warburg, who corresponded with members of the ‘Wiener Schule’, and Saxl, who was trained by its teachers, whilst reading the important books of its members, never wanted to be drawn into their research agenda. Warburg was clear that he wanted to pursue a different form of ‘Kulturwissenschaft', all but untranslatable into English, possibly approaching a term like cultural 'science'. Saxl, whilst sympathetic to individual proponents of the ‘Wiener Schule’, realized that its analysis of artistic production would not be shared by scholars working in the KBW and/or the newly established university in Hamburg. The result was friendly coexistence in equidistance

Bringing light into darkness

<p>The art historian Fritz Saxl, Aby Warburg’s librarian and trusted friend, researched apart from art historical topics images of gods of late antiquity, Oriental and Greek mystery cults and the pictorial presentation of dialogue in early Christian art. This research led him to Mithraism, the images and practices of this mystery cult and in particular how Oriental thought flowed into Occidental thought. Saxl was engaged in this work for many years. In this article I touch upon Saxl’s extended correspondence with Aby Warburg in 1929, when Warburg was in Rome and was able to see Mithraic temples for himself. The exchange of their queries and tentative answers, their theoretical speculations and findings, their approach to understanding Mithraic monuments and sites, shed light on their unique method of scholarly collaboration.</p