August Schmarsow (26 May 1853, Schildfeld – 19 January 1936) was a German art historian.

Biography

He was born in Schildfeld (now part of Vellahn),

Mecklenburg-Schwerin The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin () was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolphus Frederick II divided ...

, and was educated in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

and

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. He became docent of the history of art at

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

in 1881,

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

there in 1882, at Breslau in 1885, and went to

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

in 1892, and thence to

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

in 1893.Prof. Dr. phil. August Schmarsow
Professorenkatalog der Universität Leipzig In 1888 he founded the ''Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz'' (Institute for the History of Art,

), an institution to promote original research in the history of Italian art, now part of the Max Planck Society, a German state institution.

Literary works

His writings are characterized by sound scholarship and acute criticism. He wrote

biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

of David D'Angers, Ingres, and Prudhon in Robert Dohme's ''Kunst und Kunstler;

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

und Pinturicchio in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

'' (1880); he also wrote: * '' Melozzo da Forli'' (1886) * '' Giovanni Santi'' (1887) * '' St. Martin von Lucca und die Anfänge der toskanischen Sculptur im Mittelalter'' (1889) * ''

Masaccio Masaccio (, ; ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great List of Italian painters, Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaiss ...

-Studien'' (1895–99), with atlas * '' Barock und Rokoko'' (1897) * ''Grundbegriffe der Kunstwissenschaft'' (1905) * '' Federigo Barocci'' (1909–10) * '' Gherardo Starnina'' (1912)

Theory of architecture

Schmarsow is known for his theory of , "space-forming", that he developed in a short ''Das Wesen von architektonischen Schöpfung'' (1893) and the ''Grundbegriffe der Kunstwissenschaft'' (1905). He fundamentally altered the balance between space and mass in favor of the former: prior to his work space was considered to be a void inside the solid building, while the modern architecture treats the structures as means to define the extensions of space. Schmarsow declared that the architectural form should be understood through the movement of visitors through the space and not as an object of stationary observation.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* 1853 births 1936 deaths People from Ludwigslust-Parchim People from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin German art historians German male non-fiction writers Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Academic staff of the University of Breslau Academic staff of Leipzig University {{germany-art-historian-stub