Profile of art history at the University of Vienna

The discipline of art history, as understood by the Department of History of Art at the University of Vienna, looks at visual arts inside and outside of Europe since late antiquity from a historical perspective.

In addition to traditional art forms such as architecture, painting, graphic arts, sculpture and applied arts, visual arts have come to also include new visual media, everyday art, design and cross-media art forms.

This profile is backed by the professorships at the Department of History of Art in Vienna: Late Antiquity and Byzantine Art History (Lioba Theis, emeritus since 2022/01/01 - Successor to be announced) – the Middle Ages (Michael Viktor Schwarz) – Renaissance and Cognitive Research in Art History (Raphael Rosenberg) – Baroque (Sebastian Schütze, currently Rector of the University of Vienna, Substitute to be announced) – Modern Art (Sebastian Egenhofer) – Contemporary Art (formerly Magdalena Nieslony - Successor to be announced) – Art History of East Asia (Lukas Nickel) – Islamic Art History (Markus Ritter).

These main fields are broadened and deepened by Assistant Professor Sandra Hindriks (Northern Renaissance) and two Associate Professors: Monika Dachs (Graphic Arts, Austrian Baroque Painting), Wolfram Pichler (Image Theory, Modern Art).

Currently in the application process: Byzantine Art History, the Middle Ages, Contemporary Art and Baroque.