The theft and recovery of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (1911-1913) marked a pivotal moment in art history, culminating in its brief exhibition in Italy before returning to the Louvre. While critics have extensively studied the Florence and Milan exhibitions, little attention has been paid to the Roman episode during which it was displayed at the Galleria Borghese. This event, which marks the first time the museum attracted a mass public, played a crucial role in shaping 20th-century exhibition culture. By examining archival, journalistic, and visual sources, this study explores the political and cultural significance of the Roman exhibition, its impact on debates about national identity, and its lasting influence on museum history.
This article offers a micro-historical analysis of the contact between Theo van Doesburg, the Dutch avant-garde artist and editor of the periodical De Stijl (The Style), and Hungarian avant-garde artists associated with the peri-odical Ma (Today)-including Lajos Kass & aacute;k, S & aacute;ndor Bortnyik, L & aacute;szl & oacute; Moholy-Nagy, L & aacute;szl & oacute; P & eacute;ri, and others-during the first half of the 1920s. Drawing on archival research in the Kass & aacute;k and Van Doesburg estates, held re-spectively at the Kass & aacute;k Museum in Budapest and the RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague, this article traces sig-nificant aspects of the international avant-garde networks in Europe in this period.
This study analyses the relationship between the two paintings of bourgeois interiors by Paul Signac (Salle & agrave; manger, 1886-1887, and Un Dimanche, 1888-1890) and contemporary literature on interior design. Authoritative information books on interior design were the publications of Henry Havard, especially L'Art dans la maison (1884) and La D & eacute;coration (1892). Signac's artistic theories were embedded in anarchist ideology; those of Havard were in line with the emerging consumer society and the state of French industry. Yet both appear to have used the same scientific-theoretical sources for a fundamental part. In the paintings as well as in the furnishing ad-vices this can be seen in the choice and arrangement of furniture, but especially in (regulations about) the application of colours and lines, whether or not aimed at psychological influencing. The similarities are striking. A shared confidence in progress through science linked divergent ideologies.
In Early Modern fortifications, the cordon typically takes the form of a semi-circular projecting band positioned at the top of the scarp, marking the transition between the sloped base and the upper vertical wall. This study focuses on the controversial question of whether the cordon served an aesthetic purpose or rather a strictly functional one. The idea of a practical function originated with Francesco di Giorgio Martini (15th century), who imagined that a specially shaped cordon could prevent the enemy from scaling the ramparts with ladders. Through an analysis primarily of treatises by 16th-and 17th-century engineers, this paper shows how they understood the role of the cordon in the fortifications of their time.
At the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris, a competition for public sympathy unfolded within the Russian section between two paintings-Jozef Simmler's The Death of Barbara Radziwill and Konstantin Flavitsky's Princess Tarakanova. Flavitsky worked in Saint Petersburg, while Simmler was based in Warsaw, in the so-called Kingdom of Poland (commonly known as Congress Poland), then part of the Russian Empire. This paper examines how their depictions of beautiful, dying women reflected the collective memory and political concerns of the Polish and Russian nations. Additionally, by drawing on archival documents, it investigates the selection and censorship of paintings for the Russian section of the Exposition Universelle. It also analyzes French critics' responses to Barbara Radziwill and Princess Tarakanova. In doing so, the paper traces how the reception of these works evolved across various national contexts.
Stinemolen's panorama of Naples reverses the traditional representation model by showing the city as seen from the countryside. It stages a view of the city, the sea, and the horizon framed by repoussoirs. This article identifies the Dutch Weltlandschaft ("world landscape") and the inventions of the Danube school, particularly the paintings and prints of Albrecht Altdorfer, as the medial preconditions for this novel image creation, which also exhibits affinities with contemporary literary preconceptions of the view of the city, as documented in Giovanni Tarcagnota's "Del sito, et lodi della città di Napoli" (1566). The unusual ambition of Stinemolen's panorama of Naples can be better understood when compared with Anton van den Wyngaerde's drawing of Naples and his series of depictions of Spanish cities commissioned by Philip II, which were probably created as templates for a printed city atlas. Stinemolen and his patron may have been planning a large-format print similar to Wyngaerde's engraving of Genoa. Regardless of this presumed practical function, Stinemolen attempts to emulate the atmospheric effects of landscape painting in the medium of drawing without abandoning the claim to topographical precision and accurate representation of individual buildings. The conflicting demands of cartographic and landscape representation thus appear to be dialectically absorbed in the virtuosity of the drawing. The result is the creation of a larger-than-life visual experience that offers a view of the city impossible to capture from any specific, actual location on Naples's periphery.
This essential bibliography on Jan van Stinemolen's Panorama of Naples (1582) includes additional titles relating to the interpretation of this drawing, as well as the digitized maps annotated at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, which were fundamental to the approach followed and exemplified in this special issue. The aim of this collaborative research project was twofold: to identify as many of the sites visualized in Stinemolen's monumental drawing as possible, and to investigate its artistic composition and intermedial construction, which revealed how this work is far from a simple snapshot of Naples in 1582.
A view of Naples by Jan van Stinemolen forms part of a digitization project that has been carried out at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History since 2017. The aim is to provide public access to selected historical maps and views of the city scenically located on the Gulf of Naples through interactive web applications. In these applications, all objects identified by numbers or inscriptions have been marked, annotated, and enriched with metadata using vector graphics. The Mappa topografica della città di Napoli e de' suoi contorni by the Duca di Noja (1775) served as the central reference for all subsequent digitizations, as it offers more valuable information for the identification of sites within the urban space and its rural surroundings in Early Modern Naples than any other historical map of the city. Jan van Stinemolen's panorama presents a challenge because it lacks an accompanying legend. This article uses Stinemolen's view of Naples not only as a compelling example of the ways in which digital web applications can work with historical source material, but also as an opportunity for discussing the potentials and limitations of such innovative analytical methods.
In comparison with previous depictions as well as with coeval and later maps of Naples, Jan van Stinemolen's view (1582) adopts an unusual point of observation by surveying the city from the hillside to the gulf. This allows one to perceive Naples as embedded in its wider environment, ranging from Vesuvius to the Phlegraean Fields. In this context, nature plays a fundamental role, both outside and inside the city walls. As for the latter, the fortifications differ from what we know of the circuit built by Viceroy Pedro de Toledo, both in their form and the connection between the walled perimeter and the north-western urban areas. In particular, this issue and the question of topographical truth has attracted much attention in the scholarly discussion devoted to the drawing thus far. This paper aims to consider such peculiarities from a different perspective. Its point of departure is the rendering of the monumental gate facing the viewer with the oddly fashioned design that Stinemolen gave to a site where other historical sources record only a minor opening known as pertuso; an actual gate, the Porta Medina, was built only some sixty years later. Such seemingly inconsistent features actually match the imagery of old, more specifically ancient towns, and may thus be intentional. Furthermore, the relevance and visual variation of the bedrock, as attested by this view as well as by further drawings by Jan van Stinemolen, provide elements for examining the author's emphasis on natural phenomena peculiar to the Neapolitan region, paralleling scholarly narratives that emerged at this time within the context of a growing naturalist interest in volcanic phenomena.
Jan van Stinemolen (1518–1582) is an interesting artist who remains largely unknown. As he is not mentioned in Karel van Mander's Schilder-Boeck, his biography must be pieced together from archival sources and remains incomplete. These sources primarily record Stinemolen's presence in the Spanish Netherlands, first in his hometown of Mechelen and later in Antwerp. The dates of his time in Naples and southern Italy – a trip to Sicily can be inferred from one of his drawings – are unclear. Like other members of his family, he was probably primarily active as a silversmith and jeweller – a prosperous profession, although he may have been affected by the religious wars in his homeland. Nothing has survived of his work as a silversmith; apart from the spectacular View of Naples, only a few drawings remain, most of which are attributed to him on stylistic grounds. Stinemolen's particular amalgamation of topographical map and perspectival view in this panorama may have its roots in Mechelen, where urban cartography flourished in the 16th century. His fascination with landscapes created by volcanic forces is evident in his drawings. The characteristics of his panorama allow us to form further hypotheses about his artistic motivations and his interest in natural history.
At the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris, a competition for public sympathy unfolded within the Russian section between two paintings – Józef Simmler’s The Death of Barbara Radziwiłł and Konstantin Flavitsky’s Princess Tarakanova. Flavitsky worked in Saint Petersburg, while Simmler was based in Warsaw, in the so-called Kingdom of Poland (commonly known as Congress Poland), then part of the Russian Empire. This paper examines how their depictions of beautiful, dying women reflected the collective memory and political concerns of the Polish and Russian nations. Additionally, by drawing on archival documents, it investigates the selection and censorship of paintings for the Russian section of the Exposition Universelle. It also analyzes French critics’ responses to Barbara Radziwiłł and Princess Tarakanova. In doing so, the paper traces how the reception of these works evolved across various national contexts.
In 1582, the Dutch draughtsman Jan van Stinemolen completed a monumental panorama of the city of Naples. The distinctive feature of this work in ink on paper, which is now kept in the Albertina in Vienna, is that it does not show the conventional view of the city from the gulf, but rather from the mainland. Surprisingly, however, this original work – well known both to scholars of Neapolitan topography and to those studying Dutch drawing – has not yet received adequate interpretative attention. The contributions gathered in this issue seek to fill this gap, employing new analytical tools to present fresh perspectives on the work and to highlight its distinctive qualities.
This essay examines Jan van Stinemolen's view of Naples by moving beyond the traditional comparison with historical cartography. Unlike the maps by Du Perac/Lafréry (1566) and Baratta (1627), which were conceived with a primarily topographical intent, Stinemolen's drawing is interpreted as a visual device evoking in the viewer the experience of a panoramic vista. Within this framework, several features previously regarded as distortions or omissions in the city's depiction – such as the absence of the upper Decumanus as well as the duplication or displacement of certain buildings – can be reconsidered. The parallel with sixteenth- and seventeenth-century published descriptions of Naples suggests alternative modes of engagement, prompting the viewer to enter imaginatively into the urban space. The adoption of multiple viewpoints is linked to the setting on the northern hills, which shaped the city into a kind of "theatre" – a recurrent topos in early modern accounts of Naples – without privileging a single vantage point but rather combining plausible views into a unified portrait, in line with Stinemolen's visual rhetoric and with the literary renown of the city in the sixteenth century.
This article discusses the methodological approaches for writing a monograph that links the life and work of an individual engaged in the arts, using the example of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis (1898-1944). It advocates for a productive interweaving of biographical construction and work-centered study, critically reflecting on the diversity of the textual, visual and material sources and their varying availability, condition, and framing. Through selected life stages and exemplary analyses of her work, the article explores the complex interrelations between the societal conditions that shaped Dicker-Brandeis's work as a Jewish artist, female architect, and committed leftist intellectual up to her deportation, and her ways to position herself within, and at times against, these categorizations. In doing so, it brings together perspectives from critical biographical research with a reading of the politics of artistic practice.
This article examines German architectural monographs from the first half of the nineteenth century, using the example of the Prussian state architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. While tributes to architects in the generation preceding Schinkel were typically limited to posthumous obituaries, by the time of the post-Napoleonic bourgeois transformation and nation formation after the Congress of Vienna, an architect like Schinkel could already expect extensive public recognition in journals during his lifetime, from both art historians and professional peers. These writings clearly also served as a means of assessing national cultural achievement in the representative sphere of the arts. In the Vorm & auml;rz period, motifs and narrative strategies drawn from Romantic literature were employed to promote a bourgeois ideal of the artist-an ideal that left a particularly strong mark on representations of Schinkel. The architect was already perceived during his lifetime more as an autonomous artist than as a Prussian civil servant, even though he ascended through all ranks of state service over several decades, ultimately becoming Oberlandesbaudirektor (Director of Public Works), a position from which he significantly shaped architecture throughout Prussia. Moreover, the early monographs on Schinkel were apparently imbued with historical-philosophical ideas concerning the transhistorical significance of his artistry.
Otto Wagner was already honoured with a monograph during his lifetime. What may at first glance appear to be a tribute to the architect and his life's work by the well-known cultural journalist Joseph August Lux reveals itself, in the context of the author's other writings, as a relatively undisguised attack on the cultural establishment of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and its art policies. In his Wagner monograph, Lux elaborated on the theme of the artist suffering from the incomprehension of those in power-a motif he had previously developed in several of his novels. Lux too, despite the wide circulation of his books, saw himself as a victim of cultural policy, and thus as a kindred interpreter of Wagner's creative work and suffering.
The following interview, conducted by Richard Kurdiovsky in June and July 2022 with Astrid Graf-Wintersberger-editor at Residenz Verlag, Salzburg, from 1987 and its programme director until 2006, as well as coeditor of the publisher's 2006 anniversary Festschrift-aims, in the spirit of oral history, to provide insights and information on monographs on architects from the perspective of a publishing house. This perspective may be shaped by different determining factors than those that govern the seemingly objective realm of academic research. The intention and expectation are that this text will serve as a contemporary document: both as a source and a stimulus for future research. It addresses questions regarding the role of publishers in the academic process and in cultural policy, in the public dissemination of architects through the medium of the art book (particularly for a broader audience), in the formation of awareness, and ultimately, in the shaping of the art historical canon.
As a methodological and critical response to the concept of the 'complete oeuvre', this article advocates for an alternative approach: the focused analysis of a specific historical moment. Such an approach allows for a depth of engagement that is often unattainable when considering an artist's work in its entirety. Accordingly, this study examines the complex interplay between architecture, media, and politics in the work of modernist architect Hans Scharoun during the period 1933 to 1945. The resulting analysis yields new insights, including the identification of additional artifacts - particularly performative architectural photographs - that offer a more nuanced understanding of Scharoun's practice and position during the years of political oppression.
This article examines the origins of the monograph as a publication format dedicated to individual architects and explores how such person-centered narratives in architectural history are, or might be, written today in light of contemporary concerns such as gender equality and hegemonic discourses, including those addressed in postcolonial critique. Originally conceived as a means of honouring exclusively male and European architects and artists, the diversity among the authors of these publications was also very limited in the early days. The article poses critical questions: Who is deemed worthy of a monograph and thereby integrated into the architectural canon? What values and hierarchies are reinforced through such recognition? What roles do the various actors involved-the monograph's author, those working in archives, collections, and publishing houses-play in shaping these narratives? The article offers a critical reassessment of the monograph as a traditional scholarly format, while also highlighting its potential to support a more interconnected and contextually grounded approach to architectural historiography.
