Johann Dominicus Fiorillo

Johann Dominik Fiorillo (also: Dominique, Dominico, born October 13, 1748 in Hamburg, † September 10, 1821 in Göttingen ) was a German painter and art historian of Italian descent; considered the founder of art history as an academic discipline in Germany.

Life

He was born the son of a Neapolitan family of artists in Hamburg. His initial training as an artist, he was at the art academy in Bayreuth. 1761, he continued his studies in Rome and from 1765 in Bologna at Ercole Nelli, in which he learned anatomy, architecture and perspective. 1769 he was appointed member of the Academy of Bologna and returned to Germany, where he wrote increasingly in addition to his history painting at the Braunschweiger Hof on art history. In 1781 he moved to Göttingen and in 1799 professor of philosophy at the Georg -August- University. He also gave drawing lessons from the developed courses in the philosophy department.

He was not only Christian Gottlob Heyne's friend and Gottfried August Bürger rather, he stood in conjunction with all the major protagonists of this era at the University of Göttingen. As a teacher, Karl Friedrich von Rumohr and the Romantics August Wilhelm Schlegel, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder and Ludwig Tieck, he took a formative influence.

This meaning is also documented by his main work, a nine -volume history of art; a task which occupied him for over two decades. Fiorillo established the art history as a separate academic subject. His history of drawing arts (1798-1821) is a highly detailed, ordered by country compendium of the history of European art from the Middle Ages until the 18th century.

Fiorillo was a member of the Göttingen Masonic Lodge Augusta at the three flames.

Writings

• La satira della pittura di Salvatore Rosa; Göttingen, 1785
• Description of Gemählde Collection at the University of Göttingen; Small independent writings / Fiorillo, Johann Dominik, Göttingen 1805, Reprint 1998
• History of drawing arts in Germany and the Netherlands; 4 volumes, 1815-1820

Factory output:

• Johann Dominik Fiorillo: All writings. Edited by Achim Hölter. 15 vols Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 1997ff. (Released. Vols 1-12 Preface in Vol 1, pp. 1-23)