Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich

Ludwig Heinrich Heyden Reich ( born March 23, 1903 in Leipzig, † September 14, 1978 in Munich) was a German art historian. The focus of his research and teaching were the visual arts and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. His most important publications are devoted to Leonardo da Vinci.

Life and work

Heyden Reich studied and earned his doctorate under Erwin Panofsky at the Art History Department, University of Hamburg, which already had international recognition despite its short existence only because of the iconology theory Panofsky and Aby Warburg.

1934, a year after the forced emigration of "not Aryan " Panofsky, was Heydenreich lecturer at the seminar, whose management he soon took over. He taught here from 1934 to 1937 allegations and defamation on the part of Nazi circles (eg Werner Burmeister ), brought him, that he will continue in charge of the remaining doctoral his teacher and also some -. Though not all - as "Jewish" defamed theoretical approaches Panofsky further represented. From 1937 to 1943 he taught in Berlin.

In 1943 he moved to Florence, where he became the successor of Friedrich Kriegbaum ( 1901-1943 ) as head of the Art History Institute. As an officer of the armed forces for the military protection of art, he worked with the Italian authorities on protection of monuments of historical buildings and works of art from war damage and misuse, especially in Florence, Siena and Pisa. Heydenreich also caused the seizure and removal of cultural property in the Alps. The given by him in a photographic documentation of the historic center of Florence is the last witness to their historic state before the German troops in 1944 during their retreat, the Ponte Santo Spirito and the two buildings in front of the Ponte Vecchio destroyed.

In 1946, he was founding director of the based in Munich 's Central Institute for Art History that promote the reconstruction of the German art history in an international context and should allow for the revival of the demolished since 1933 international contacts. Heyden Reich headed the Central Institute until 1970. Since 1951 he was editor of Real lexicon for German art history.

In a composition Heyden empire was lost in May 2012, the manuscript believed the Habilitationsschrift Erwin Panofsky " The design principles of Michelangelo, which especially in its relationship Raphael's " found.

Writings (selection )

• Leonardo. Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin, 1943.
• The sacred building studies of Leonardo da Vinci. Studies on the topic: Leonardo da Vinci as an architect. Fink, Munich 1971.
• Italian Renaissance. Beginnings and development in the period 1400-1460. Beck, Munich 1972.
• Bern Dibner Ladislao Reti and with Leonardo, the inventor. Belser, Stuttgart 1981.
• Studies on the architecture of the Renaissance. Selected essays. Fink, Munich 1981.
• Leonardo studies. Edited by Günter Passavant, Prestel, Munich, 1988.