The origins of an academic discipline

In Vienna, the field of art history was institutionalised rather early: in 1847, Rudolf Eitelberger von Edelberg (1817–1885) became a Privatdozent. In 1852 he was awarded associate professorship and in 1863 he became a Full Professor of Art History and Archaeology of Art at the University of Vienna, where he taught until his death in 1885. Vienna was thus one of the first places to provide an academic education for dealing with works and sources in a practical and academic manner. Uniquely, a second Chair in Art History was established already in the 19th century, in 1879. It was first filled by Moritz Thausing (1838–1884), followed by Franz Wickhoff (1853–1909) in 1885 and Joseph Strzygowski (1862–1941) in 1909. Eitelberger's chair was again occupied as late as 1897 by Alois Riegl (1858–1905), who was succeeded by Max Dvořák (1874–1921) in 1909. Julius von Schlosser (1866–1938) then followed in 1922 and Hans Sedlmayr (1896–1984) in 1936.

Institutional networking and methodological pluralism

As one of the most renowned and innovative institutes of art history, the Department of History of Art in Vienna soon enjoyed a good reputation, which was reflected in the historical label “Wiener Schule”, the Vienna School of Art History. Art history in Vienna opened up methodological and especially topic-based perspectives that have remained of interest up to the present. Some of them have even gained topical relevance again. Despite the diversity of approaches and interests, there are several distinctive features:
Vienna School representatives were in general unbiased about their academic discipline, which elsewhere was soon restricted by notions of style, genre, era and art at an early point in time. In this context, the close collaboration with museums and the monuments office played a pivotal role. The Bundesdenkmalamt, the Austrian federal monuments office (founded in 1853 as K.k. Centralkommission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale – imperial-royal central commission for the study and maintenance of monuments), which substantially contributed to making the art of Central and Eastern Europe accessible to scholars, was headed by three well-known Viennese chairs (Riegl, Dvořak, Demus), who acted as presidents. Eitelberger was the founding director of the Imperial and Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (1863, today called the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, or MAK). Thausing was the director of the Albertina museum. Among the later chairs were Günther Heinz, curator at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the museum of fine arts in Vienna, and Hermann Fillitz, director of the same. This symbiotic relationship broadened the thematic horizon beyond the catalogue of canonical works of art. It also led to a special affinity for the objective and material nature of the artwork. Researchers like Wickhoff, Strzygowski and Riegl systematically opened up the discipline for new regions and media (material culture, late antiquity, early book painting, Baroque, Islam, Asia, etc.). They formed the basis of what later became known as “global art history”. The Department was also closely linked to the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (institute of Austrian historical research), which was founded in 1854 and educated scholars from Thausing, Wickhoff, Riegl and Dvořak to Rosenauer. From 1874, the three-year course for archivists also included the subject of Art History. This is connected to another defining characteristic of art history in Vienna: the interest in historical source texts. The systematic redaction and analysis of historical documents about works of art and artists are closely associated with the names of Eitelberger and Schlosser.
This methodological pluralism was not always put into practice smoothly. Exacerbated by personal incompatibility, it even led to the physical separation of the two chairs into two rivalling departments headed by Strzygowski and Dvořák; and Schlosser between 1911 and 1933. During that time, a comparative-formalistic approach opposed an intellectual-historical approach based on primary source studies. It was not before 1936 that Sedlmayr took over the, by now, only chair of the “reunited” Department.

“Third Reich” and “new beginning”

The representatives of the Vienna School of Art History also included an important generation of famous researchers who were systematically ostracised or forced into exile in the 1930s. Among them were the art historians Frederik Antal, Ernst Gombrich, Ernst Kris, Otto Kurz, Otto Pächt, Fritz Saxl, Hans Tietze and Johannes Wilde. Hermann Bessemer and Josef Bodonyi were killed in concentration camps. These exiled and murdered scholars are commemorated by a monument in front of the Department. Aside from the personal anguish the victims had to endure, listing the names of these people makes apparent the enormous and irreparable loss of academic significance and academic gravity that Viennese art history suffered even beyond its Department. It is a loss that the University and the entire German-speaking academic world may never fully recover from. Many of those who were able to flee abroad, mostly to Anglo-Saxon countries, found a new home in their host countries. Particularly in Great Britain and the United States of America, their contribution to the development of art history was considerable.
The number of returnees after 1945 was low. The impossibility of turning back the hands of time is illustrated in a letter by Otto Pächt (1902–1981), who had emigrated to England, to his colleague from Heidelberg August Grisebach, who was also persecuted by the Nazis. Written in 1949, it clearly addresses the obstacles of returning home, which particularly included the atmosphere at the time.
In 1946, Karl Maria Swoboda (1889–1977) was appointed chair at the Department. The student of Dvořák had been an associate professor since 1930 and a lecturer at the German part of Charles University in Prague from 1934 to 1945. Pächt eventually returned to Vienna to become Head of Department in 1963. This was an important step towards making Viennese art history once again internationally visible. At the same time, Otto Demus (1902–1990), who had also returned from exile in England, was appointed chair as well: after three decades, the Viennese Department of History of Art, which was now residing at the Neues Institutsgebäude behind the University's Main Building on the Ringstrasse, had a second chair again. Thanks to the focus on the Middle Ages of the “Ottonians” as well as of Gerhard Schmidt (1924–2010), who was appointed Extraordinarius (roughly corresponding to associate professor) in 1964 and chair in 1968, Vienna's medieval research in the 1960s and 1970s gained an international reputation. Hermann Fillitz (successor to Pächt from 1974) largely contributed to this achievement as well.

Broadening the horizons

With the steady growth of the department (and the University of Vienna), teaching and research priorities have been systematically differentiated since the 1970s. In 1971, Renate Wagner-Rieger (1921-1980) was appointed full professor, the first in the history of the department. With her research interests, she made a significant contribution to research on the Gründerzeit and the turn of the century (for example, with the project on Vienna's Ringstrasse). In 1976, Baroque specialist Günther Heinz (1927-1992) was appointed to Demus' chair, which in turn helped to further strengthen this epoch in art history research. This chair was filled by Hellmut Lorenz in 1997 and Sebastian Schütze in 2009, so that Baroque research in Vienna can now boast a strong continuity that also includes previously marginal areas such as Spanish art. With the appointment of Artur Rosenauer in 1982, Renaissance art was once again actively represented after Schlosser. The appointment of Helmut Buschhausen as associate professor of Byzantine art history took place at the same time. 

As with the extraordinary professorship for “non-European art history” established in 1996 by Deborah Klimburg-Salter – which has since been established as the Chair of Asian Art History and has been headed by Lukas Nickel since 2016 – Buschhausen’s position was eventually upgraded to a professorship. Lioba Theis took over from him in 2005, followed by Manuela Studer-Karlen in 2025. Friedrich Teja Bach has firmly established modern art at the institute since 1994. He was succeeded by Sebastian Egenhofer in 2016. This field of study was expanded with a temporary professorship for contemporary art (represented by Friederike Sigler since 2025). Since 1998, Michael Viktor Schwarz represented the Medieval period and headed the field of book illumination, which was very active with numerous research projects. In 2025, Assaf Pinkus succeeded him as chair holder. In 2009, Raphael Rosenberg was appointed as Rosenauer's successor and introduced the new field of Empirical Image Science. The institute's expansion in the field of art geography continued in 2012 with the creation of a new professorship for Islamic Art History, to which Markus Ritter was appointed. Assistant Professor Sandra Hindriks and Associate Professor Wolfram Pichler, as well as numerous lecturers, university assistants, and external lecturers, significantly enrich the teaching and supervision offered.

Maximilian Hartmuth, Golo Maurer, Raphael Rosenberg

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