Alois Riegl

Alois Riegl Collected Essays

Alois Riegl was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. He was one of the major figures in the establishment of art history as a self-sufficient academic discipline, and one of the most influential practitioners of formalism. In 1883 Riegl wrote his dissertation on the Romanesque Church of St. Jacob, Regensburg (manuscript lost). He joined the staff of the Austrian Museum of Decorative Arts (Institut f r sterreichische Geschichtsforchung) and began writing his Habilitation, Die Mittelalterliche Kalenderillustration, in 1889, which examined the Hellenistic tradition in medieval calendar manuscripts. In 1886 he began curatorial training in the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, succeeding another Thausing student, Franz Wickhoff, in 1887 working for the next ten years as curator of textiles at the Austrian museum. Riegl's first two books, Altorientalische Teppiche and Stilfragen: Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der Ornamentik, 1891 and 1893 respectively, follow from his work in the museum. Even in these first books, his interest in theory as well as an interdisciplinary view of art history was evident. Stilfragen gained Riegl an extraordinarius position at the University of Vienna in 1894. He continued his interest in common art objects-what were then considered minor arts-in his next book, Volkskunst, Hausfleiss und Hausindustrie, 1894, which employed economic theory in constructing their history. In 1894 and 1895 he began lecturing on baroque art, a period still largely viewed as decadent, ushering in (together with the work of Cornelius Gurlitt) a new evaluation of the stylistic period. At Vienna, he and Wickhoff formed what came to be known as the (first) Vienna school of art historical method. For more, see The Dictionary of Art Historians, arthistorians.info.