Heinrich Wölfflin’s Italien und das deutsche Formgefühl (1931)

Teresa Ende

The edition project Heinrich Wölfflin – Complete Works aims to examine the writings, working methods, and network of Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945). An important part of our research is to access and analyze the vast amount of archival material, such as Wölfflin’s notes and unpublished writings. Each volume of the edition contains an introductory essay written by a well-known representative of the field as well as an extensive apparatus containing a historico-critical commentary and archival and other contextual material.
In his last large work, Italien und das deutsche Formgefühl (1931), Wölfflin tries to systematically examine the relation between ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ art, and between aesthetic sensibilities and mentalities, as exemplified by the opposition between Italy and the ‘German feeling for form’ – questions that had occupied him throughout his career. Apart from archival research, transcription, and textual/historical research, it is vital for the commentary that the politically charged vocabulary used by Wölfflin – e.g. “nationale Charaktere,” “Rasse,” “Boden” – be contextualized and examined closely. The results will give new insight not only into the understanding of art and architecture, art theory, and society as elaborated by one of the most widely read and translated art historians but also into art history, its own historiography, and its methods.