Robert Vischer

Robert Vischer ( born February 22, 1847 in Tübingen, † March 25 1933 in Vienna ) was a German art historian and esthetician.

Life and work

The son of the esthetician and writer Friedrich Theodor Vischer was influenced at an early age by the numerous acquaintances of his father, for example, Eduard Moerike, who was also his godfather, Ludwig Uhland and David Friedrich Strauss. So he studied for his schooling at the Universities of Zurich, Heidelberg, Bonn, Munich and Tübingen, among other art history and philosophy. In 1872 he received his doctorate in Tübingen with the theme: "On the optical sense of form ." Two years later he moved to the Vienna Academy of Art, where he was adopted until 1878 as Skriptor in the local library. Vischer then moved to the University of Munich, where he habilitated in 1879 and taught as a lecturer. During this time, Vischer member of the Munich poet circle " The Crocodiles ". In 1882 he was appointed professor at the University of Breslau, where first an associate professor of modern art history gave him before in 1885, a professor at the RWTH Aachen followed to get here until 1893 as Professor of General art history and aesthetics of the work areas Aesthetic problems of form and Italian Renaissance to act. Finally Vischer moved in 1893 still at the University of Göttingen, where he taught until his retirement in 1911 in the same capacity.

Robert Vischer marked the true pioneer in the field of aesthetic theory of empathy. He was still influenced by the environment of the expiring (old) Hegelianism and further developed the theories of his father, represented as opposed to this but no nativist, but a more empiricist approach. Vischer designed as part of the empathy the thesis that the "soul" - by which he meant the power of emotions - a projection of an observer is to a objects so that in the process of understanding the observed objects to connect with your own feeling. To this end, he transferred the results of experimental psychology by Wilhelm Wundt to the concept of empathy, which were then in particular a strengthening and deepening of Heinrich Theodor Lipps Wölfflin and on. Vischer linked therefore according to his understanding the psychology and aesthetics to create an interdisciplinary intermediate stage of art history, which constitutes a new modern direction of aesthetics, according to Herman Glockner. Vischer clarified so that a work of art as a product of a living person with imagination and feeling should be seen and expected by the art historian, a " intrusion into the spirit of the thing ". Wilhelm Waetzoldt held as Benedetto Croce Robert Vischer then for one of the greatest impressionists among art historians, especially in regard to Vischer mentioned interpretation of the impressions paintings or other art objects made ​​on the viewer.

Vischer's theses were reflected in its various publications with which he not only sparked enthusiasm, but for which he also received condescending and defamatory criticism for example, by Wilhelm von Bode, as it blurred the lines of traditional art history and philosophy. Conversely, however, served also Vischer some controversy when he critically remarked in his works on those art historians, " whose work is not exhausted in cataloging, data determining document hunting, notes accumulation and technology ". Also in the field of art theory Vischer made ​​by its commitment to a re-evaluation of late antiquity, which was outclassed at that time as " expiration period ", not just friends. Influenced by Alois Riegl and the Vienna School of Art History, he was as well as these of the opinion that the ancient art is the starting point for both the early Middle Ages as well as the oriental art and thus in need of a reassessment.

In addition to its own publications Robert Vischer was also significant publisher of most of the works of his father, Friedrich Theodor Vischer.

Works (selection)

  • About the visual sense of form - a contribution to aesthetics, Diss, Tübingen 1872
  • Luca Signorelli and the Italian Renaissance: art-historical monograph, Leipzig, Veit, 1879
  • History of Art and Humanism - Contributions to clarify, Stuttgart, 1880
  • New about Bernhard Striegel, in: Yearbook of the Royal. Prussian Art Collection, 1885
  • Studies on the History of Art, Stuttgart: Bonz, 1886
  • Peter Paul Rubens - A book for unzünftige art lovers, Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1904
  • Three publications on aesthetic mold problem, Hall; Saale: M. Niemeyer, 1927
  • Empathy, Form, and Space - Problems in German Aesthetics 1873-1893, HF Mallgrave, E. Economou, R. Vischer, K. Fiedler, H. Wölfflin: Oxford University Press; 1994, ISBN 0-89236-259-6
  • Other Works by Robert Vischer in the catalog of the University Library Freiburg:

Literature and sources

  • Kürschners German scholar Calendar, 1931, Sp 3100
  • Metzler art historian lexicon: two hundred portraits of German-speaking authors from four centuries, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1999, p 423-425
  • Thomas Friedrich, Jörg H. Gleiter: empathy and phenomenological reduction - basic texts on architecture, design and art, 2007 337 pages, Paperback LIT Verlag, ISBN 3-825-89366-9
  • Herman Glockner: Robert Vischer and the crisis of the humanities in the last third of the 19th century. A contribution to the history of Irrationalitätsproblems, Logos 14 (1925 ), 297-343; 15 (1926 ), 47-102
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