the mediterranean foundations of ancient art

the mediterranean foundations of ancient art

THE MEDITERRANEAN FOUNDATIONS OF ANCIENT ART
MITTELMEERSTUDIEN
Herausgegeben von
Mihran Dabag, Dieter Haller, Nikolas Jaspert
und Achim Lichtenberger
BAND 4
Guido Freiherr von Kaschnitz-Weinberg
THE MEDITERRANEAN
FOUNDATIONS
OF ANCIENT ART
Translated and edited by John R. Clarke
Wilhelm Fink | Ferdinand Schöningh
Titelillustration:
“The Temple of the Sphinx.” Giza
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(Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh GmbH & Co. KG, Jühenplatz 1, D-33098 Paderborn)
Internet:
www.fink.de | www.schoeningh.de
Einbandgestaltung: Evelyn Ziegler, München
Printed in Germany
Herstellung: Ferdinand Schöningh GmbH & Co. KG, Paderborn
ISBN 978-3-7705-5913-8 (Fink)
ISBN 978-3-506-77919-9 (Schöningh)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
(John R. Clarke)
7
Notes on the Translation
9
Chronology
11
Introduction
15
The Mediterranean Foundations of Ancient Art
(Guido Freiherr von Kaschnitz-Weinberg)
25
Notes
91
Bibliography
107
Illustrations
115
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
( John R. Clarke)
M
y interest in Guido Freiherr von Kaschnitz-Weinberg began long ago
during my graduate years at Yale, where several of my instructors—
most notably Sheldon Nodelman—introduced me to Kaschnitz and
other illustrious scholars of the Vienna School of Structural Analysis. Grants from
the Research Institute of the University of Texas allowed me the time to pursue
this translation, to travel to libraries to investigate Kaschnitz’s sources, and to
write the introductory essay. Three scholars have helped me in this long project.
Many years ago, John W. Dixon, Jr., Professor of Art History at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, shared drafts of his translations of two other essays
by Kaschnitz. Sigrid Knudsen’s comments on this draft were of great help. The
late Eleanor Greenhill, Professor Emerita of the History of Art at the University
of Texas, kindly read my translation and offered invaluable suggestions. Any remaining errors are mine alone; I hope they are few and will not distract the
reader from this important essay. Last but not least, I am grateful to my lamented
partner, Michael Larvey, for his sustained interest in this project and for his constant support.
NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION
T
ranslating this short essay by Kaschnitz has proven a long and difficult
task. His language is complex, frequently employing idiosyncratic syntax and word usages. Both Helga von Heintze and Peter H. von Blanckenhagen, who personally worked with Kaschnitz and edited his collected writings, comment on the difficulty of his writing for the German reader. Kaschnitz’s
sentences tend to be long and periodic. He often pushes the meanings of German words to serve his highly-original thoughts, and his thinking, condensed
and concentrated from many years of working with the monuments and their
meanings, leaps from peak to peak in dense and headlong prose.
I have attempted to adhere closely to Kaschnitz’s style and vocabulary; in
this sense it is a precise rather than free translation. Translating Kaschnitz really requires that one live with his ideas over a long period. Over the years I
have been able to try them out on my graduate students both at Yale University and the University of Texas; their readings of my interim translations have
stimulated me to find better ways of communicating Kaschnitz’s ideas and
methodology.
I have been able to correct several mistakes in the notes and illustrations,
mostly citations of pages and illustration numbers. Kaschnitz did not provide
numbered notes for The Mediterranean Foundations of Ancient Art. Instead, he collected references at the end of the essay labeled by key phrases, such as “TaurianIranian Culture,” grouping them according to the page numbers in the text. I
have reconstructed 122 notes, numbered sequentially, from the same number of
Kaschnitz’s references; I have also retained his key phrases. In most cases my
endnotes follow the order of Kaschnitz’s references; when they do not, the logic of my rearrangement should be clear to the reader. In order to aid the reader
wishing to explore Kaschnitz’s documentation, I have expanded his highly-compressed references, providing the full citation at first reference, and subsequently
replacing the abbreviations op. cit. and loc. cit. with short titles. I have also com-
piled a full bibliography including all of Kaschnitz’s citations plus the works I
cite in my Introduction.
However, I have not updated Kaschnitz’s notes. The new studies of the individual monuments and sites will be familiar to the scholar and will be easily
located by the non-specialist. Nor have I composed a current bibliography for
areas like prehistoric religion, primitive psychology, or the psychology of spatial
perception, since this would constitute another book.The purpose of this translation is not to re-evaluate Kaschnitz’s essay in the light of current knowledge
but rather to give the reader the opportunity to explore Kaschnitz’s thought and
methodology as he presented them in 1944.
10
CHRONOLOGY
T
he following chronology is based on the biography of Kaschnitz published by his wife, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, in Helga von Heintze and P.
H. von Blanckenhagen, eds., Ausgewählte Schriften; Kleine Schriften zur
Struktur (Berlin, 1965), 3: 228-39. The lists of friends and colleagues mentioned
by Mrs. Kaschnitz give the reader a sense of how important these contacts were
to the couple and in what intellectual and cultural pursuits they found pleasure
and stimulus.
1890
1907
1908
1910-13
1913
January 28, Vienna. Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg born, second
child of August Kaschnitz von Weinberg and Emma Perko.
Publishes first paper,Vienna.
Begins the study of Classical Archaeology in Vienna, with concentration on the art history of the Mediterranean area.
Works in Austrian excavations in Dalmatia; visits Greece, North
Africa, and Egypt.
Follows lectures of Max Dvorak and Hans Tietze, later Julius von
Schlosser. Develops an interest in nineteenth and twentieth-century art, reading Dostoevsky and Trakl, studying the works of
Kokoschka, Klimt, Klinger, Schiele, Egger-Lienz, Mestrovic,
Schnitzler, Munch; also Cézanne, van Gogh, Hodler, Rodin, and
Puvis de Chavannes, as well as the architecture of Loos and Wagner. Active in political discussion, favors a socialist monarchy for
Austria.
“Griechische Vasenmalerei der klassischen Zeit” wins an archaeological stipend for Greece and Asia Minor. Travels to Egypt, Ithaca,
and the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Athens; German archaeologist Doerpfeld names him assistant at excavations at the Dipylon cemetery. Soldier in Austrian infantry regiment.
1917
1918
1919-23
1923-27
1927-30
1926
1927
1929
1932
1932-36
In campaigns against Russia and Italy; develops deep aversion for
war.
Works with Austrian art protection group in Veneto; studies stucco
decoration of Santa Maria della Valle.
Works in Munich for publisher; develops his interests in theater;
translates comedies by Goldoni; follows painters of “Die Brücke.”
Called to the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, becoming director Amelung’s first assistant; marries Marie Luise von
Holzing-Berstett (born Karlsruhe 1901) in December, 1925;
friends include Axel Boethius, Hans Mobius, Werner Technau,
Elisabeth Jastrow, Rudi and Margot Wittkower, Harald Keller,
Paolino Mingazzini, Paola Zancani Montuoro, Doro Levi, Hans
Peter L’Orange, Lars Gosta Saeflund, Enrico Josi, Ranuccio Bianchi-Bandinelli. Scholarly exchange with Theodor Hetzer at the
Hertziana, Karl Lehmann-Hartleben (then working on the Column of Trajan), Friedrich Matz, and Ludwig Curtius. Works on
late Roman portraits. Studies Riegl and Coellen, Der Stil in der
bildenden Kunst.
Rome, daughter Iris Costanza born; Kaschnitz completes catalogue of the sculpture in the storerooms of the Vatican Museums
begun by Amelung.
“Studien zur etruskischen und frühromischen Porträtkunst.”
“Spätromische Porträts.”
Review of Riegl, Spätrömische Kunstindustrie.
Habilitation in Freiburg; Habilitationsschrift: “Die Struktur in der
griechischen Plastik;” first lectures.
Königsberg, writes “Bemerkungen zur Struktur der altitalienschen
Plastik,” foundation for his structural history of the Mediterranean,
then “Bemerkungen zur Struktur der ägyptischen Plastik,” “Zur
Struktur der griechischen Kunst,” and “Marcus Antonius, Domitian, Christus.” Königsberg colleagues include Wilhelm Worringer,
Walter F. Otto; Assistants Reinhard Lullies and Gerhard Kleiner
protected him politically. Nazi firings at the University. Kaschnitz
and wife spent holidays in North Africa, Greece, Rome, Naples,
Hungary and Yugoslavia, always returning to Ludwig and Edith
Curtius in Rome. Armin von Gerkan becomes second director of
the German Archaeological Institute in Rome.
12