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Book chapter
Positivism and Early Chairs of Art History in Europe 1860-1880
Victorian Culture and the Origin of Disciplines, pp.71-89
Nineteenth Century Series, Routledge, 1st
01/01/2020
Web of Science ID: WOS:000545572400004
Abstract
Art history emerged as an academic discipline in the second half of the nineteenth century. At that time, the few existing art historians teaching within universities or art institutions rarely claimed to be teaching in a specialization, but rather were regarded as generalists. The positivism of some of art history’s earliest chairs, rooted in new scientific methods and ideas in biology, had the uniform goal of objectivity. However, the approach varied. Philosophical positivism beginning with Auguste Comte holds that science provides the model of real knowledge. Hippolyte Taine offered a way of understanding the history of art through a combination of social psychology and positivism, an approach in keeping with the scientific agenda of the late Second Empire and early Third Republic. Taine divided the superior European south from the inferior north. Yet he turned to Netherlandish Renaissance art seeking the best of the Germanic (northern) race.
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Details
- Title
- Positivism and Early Chairs of Art History in Europe 1860-1880
- Edition
- 1st
- Publication Details
- Victorian Culture and the Origin of Disciplines, pp.71-89
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Contributors
- B Lightman (Editor)B Zon (Editor)
- Publisher
- Routledge; Abington
- Series
- Nineteenth Century Series
- Copyright
- © 2020 Taylor & Francis
- Identifiers
- WOS:000545572400004; 99380171560006600
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities; Art and Design
- Language
- English