Schnaase, Karl

Lawyer, art historian and critic

Born: 07.09.1798 in Danzig

died: 20.05.1875 in Wiesbaden

Schnaase was predestined for a carefree scholarly life, which consisted of the dual existence of a lawyer and art researcher. His father provided his family with significant educational experiences by visiting major European cities. Through his studies in law and his extraordinary interest in philosophy, Schnaase came into contact with the luminaries of his time. Hegel, who read about aesthetics in Heidelberg, had a profound influence on him. He was also influenced by Johann Gottfried Herder and Karl Wilhelm Solger, as well as Schiller and Kant. It was therefore only logical that Schnaase's important debut "Dutch Letters" (1834) should include philosophical and art-theoretical considerations as well as art-historical ones. He had already been working as a procurator at the district court in Düsseldorf for five years and occupied a central position in cultural life.

When the postulate for a comprehensive presentation of art history (which had only become an established science since Winckelmann) became increasingly articulated, he saw the right moment for his major project: in 1843-64, he published his "Geschichte der bildenden Künste" (History of the Fine Arts) in seven volumes dedicated to the epochs from antiquity to the Middle Ages; the eighth volume (15th century) was published posthumously in 1879.

From 1848, Schnaase worked as a senior tribunal councillor in Berlin. Actively involved in cultural life, he co-founded the Association for Religious Art in the Protestant Church. From 1867, he lived in Wiesbaden, Prussia, where Schnaase worked on the second edition of his monumental history of world art. He found his final resting place in the Old Cemetery.