Friedrich "Fritz" Saxl (8 January 1890,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

– 22 March 1948, Dulwich, London) was the

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

who was the guiding light of the Warburg Institute, especially during the long mental breakdown of its founder,

Aby Warburg Aby Moritz Warburg, better known as Aby Warburg, (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, ...

, whom he succeeded as director.

Life and work

Saxl studied in his native Vienna under

Franz Wickhoff Franz Wickhoff (7 May 1853 – 6 April 1909) was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. Early life Franz Wickhoff was born on 7 May 1853 in Steyr. He studied at the University of Vienna unde ...

Julius von Schlosser Julius Alwin Franz Georg Andreas Ritter von Schlosser (23 September 1866, Vienna – 1 December 1938, Vienna) was an Austrian art historian and an important member of the Vienna School of Art History. According to Ernst Gombrich, he was "One of the ...

and

Max Dvořák Max Dvořák (4 June 1874 – 8 February 1921) was a Czech-born Austrian art historian. He was a professor of art history at the University of Vienna and a famous member of the Vienna School of Art History, employing a ''Geistesgeschichte'' metho ...

, who oversaw his dissertation on

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

. Then in Berlin Saxl studied under

Heinrich Wölfflin Heinrich Wölfflin (; 21 June 1864 – 19 July 1945) was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles ("painterly" vs. "linear" and the like) were influential in the development of formal analysis in ar ...

, and spent 1912–13 researching in Italy for his only major work, a study of medieval illuminated manuscripts with astrological and mythological elements, marrying Elise Bienenfeld in 1913. He served in the

Austro-Hungarian army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...

as a lieutenant on the Italian front for the duration of World War I. In 1913 Fritz Saxl had joined what was then the Warburg Library at the Warburg Haus, Hamburg as librarian, and he returned in 1919, also lecturing at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...

from 1923. On Warburg's death in 1929 Saxl formally became director, although he had effectively been in charge for several years already. With the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in power, Saxl was instrumental in moving the Warburg Institute to safety in London in 1933, coming with it himself and settling in England, becoming a British citizen in 1940. His efforts at maintaining the Warburg Institute came at the cost of his own scholarly output, which was mostly restricted to papers and lectures. In 1946 Saxl founded the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance together with art historian

Richard Krautheimer Richard Krautheimer (6 July 1897 in Fürth (Franconia), Germany – 1 November 1994 in Rome, Italy) was a 20th-century art historian, architectural historian, Baroque scholar, and Byzantinist. Biography Krautheimer was born in Germany in 1897 ...

and archaeologist

Karl Lehmann Karl Lehmann (16 May 1936 – 11 March 2018) was a German Cardinal prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to Cardinal in 2001. He also served as Chairman of the Conference of the Germ ...

."History of the ''Census''" In
http://www.census.de/census/project?set_language=en
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Main published works

* ''Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters''. Vol. 1, Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1915, Vol. 2, Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1927, ols. 3 & 4, Meier, Hans, and Bober, Harry, and McGurk, Patrick.* ''English Sculpture of the 12th Century'', London: Faber & Faber 1954 * ''Lectures''. Vol. 1 & 2, London: Warburg Institute, 1957 * ''A Heritage of Images: A Selection of Lectures by Fritz Saxl''. Introduction by E. H. Gombrich. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1970 * ''The History of Warburg's Library.'' in: Gombrich, Aby Warburg. 2nd ed. Oxford : Phaidon Press, 1986, pp. 325–38 *''Gebärde, Form, Ausdruck'', vorgestellt von Pablo Schneider, Zürich-Berlin: diaphanes, 2010,

Letters

*''Ausreiten der Ecken. Die Aby Warburg – Fritz Saxl Korrespondenz 1910 bis 1919''. Ed. Dorothea McEwan. Munich 1998. . *''Wanderstrassen der Kultur. Die Aby Warburg – Fritz Saxl Korrespondenz 1920 bis 1929''. Ed. Dorothea McEwan. Munich 2004.

Notes

References

* Lee Sorensen, ed.
''Saxl, Fritz''
in th
''Dictionary of Art Historians''
* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saxl, Fritz Austrian art historians English art historians Austrian expatriates in Germany Austrian expatriates in the United Kingdom Writers from Vienna 1890 births 1948 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Directors of the Warburg Institute