Max Jakob Friedländer (5 July 1867 in Berlin – 11 October 1958 in Amsterdam) was a German museum curator and

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, ...

. He was a specialist in

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especia ...

and the

Northern Renaissance The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...

, who volunteered at the

Kupferstichkabinett Berlin The Kupferstichkabinett, or Museum of Prints and Drawings, is a prints museum in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Berlin State Museums, and is located in the Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz. It is the largest museum of graphic art in Ger ...

in 1891 under Friedrich Lippmann. On Lippmann's recommendation,

Wilhelm von Bode Wilhelm von Bode (10 December 1845 – 1 March 1929) was a German art historian and museum curator. Born Arnold Wilhelm Bode in Calvörde, he was ennobled in 1913. He was the creator and first curator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, now cal ...

took him on as his assistant in 1896 for the paintings division. He was appointed deputy director of the

Kaiser Friedrich Museum The Bode-Museum (English: ''Bode Museum''), formerly called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (''Emperor Frederick Museum''), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of Germa ...

(then containing the

Berlin State Museums The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are oversee ...

' old master paintings and sculpture) under Bode in 1904 and became director himself from 1924 to 1932, working on his history ''From Van Eyck to Bruegel'' and the 14-volume (printed in 16, with supplements) survey ''

Early Netherlandish Painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especia ...

''. In 1933 he was dismissed as a "non-Aryan" and in 1939 had to move to Amsterdam as a result of being a Jew. He attained the rank and title of

geheimrat ''Geheimrat'' was the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the ''Geheimer Rat'' reporting to the ruler. The term remained in use during subsequent monarchic r ...

(privy councillor) under the German Empire. He also donated several works to the collection and worked in the art trade as an advisor, to

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

among others. He invented the style term Antwerp Mannerism, and created many of the

notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...

s for undocumented artists in this style, and others of the period. He should not be confused with the German-American art historian

Walter Friedländer Walter Ferdinand Friedlaender (March 10, 1873 – September 8, 1966) was a German art historian (who should not be confused with Max Jakob Friedländer). Walter Friedlaender was the son of Sigismund Friedlaender and Anna Joachimsthal. Born in Gl ...

; they were not related.

Approach to art history

Friedländer's approach to art history was essentially that of a

connoisseur A connoisseur (French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator o ...

. He gave priority to a critical reading based on sensitivity rather than on grand artistic and or aesthetic theories. He described it as follows:

If the determination of the authorship of an individual work of art most certainly is not the ultimate and highest task of artistic erudition; even if it were no path to the goal: nevertheless, without a doubt, it is a school for the eye, since there is no formulation of a question which forces us to penetrate so deeply the essence of an individual work as that concerning the identity of the author. The individual work, rightly understood, teaches us what a comprehensive knowledge universal artistic activity is incapable of teaching us.

His career was marked by a disdain for the Vienna School of Art History, typical of Berlin. He tended to emphasize the Germanic character of Early Netherlandish art, a term he helped to invent, rather than either its links to French-speaking territories, or its individual local character. This at times took him into tropes on racial character typical of

German Nationalism German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and German-speakers into one unified nation state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as one n ...

in the decades around 1900. His later writings, in particular ''Early Netherlandish Painting'' to some extent climbed down from the positions taken earlier.

Photo archive

During his lifetime he took high quality photographs of artwork wherever he travelled. His personal archive with approximately 15,000 photos and reproductions of 15th- and 16th-century paintings from the North and South Netherlands are often accompanied with notes including such things as the provenance, attribution, relative condition, and location of the paintings. The majority of his work has been transcribed and digitised in the RKDimages database of the Dutch National Institute of Art History ( RKD) and forms an important open access archive for art historians.Max J. Friedlander project
at the RKD

Publications

* ''Meisterwerke der niederländischen Malerei des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts'', 1903 (''Masterpieces of Netherlandish painting of the 15th and 16th centuries''). * ''Von Jan van Eyck bis Bruegel'', 1916 (''From Jan van Eyck to Bruegel'') * ''A. Dürer'', 1923 * '' Die altniederländische Malerei'', 1924–37. In English ''

''; his major work, printed in 16 volumes * ''Echt und unecht'', 1929 (''Real and unreal'') * ''Von Kunst und Kennerschaft'', 1946 (''On art and connoisseurship'') * ''Essays über die Landschaftsmalerei'', 1947 (''Essays on landscape painting'') * ''Early Netherlandish Painting'', vol. VII, Leiden and Brussels, 1972

References

External links

* * *
''Dictionary of Art historians'': "Friedländer, Max J[acob]"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedlander, Max Jakob 1867 births 1958 deaths Curators from Amsterdam 19th-century German Jews Writers from Berlin German art historians German male non-fiction writers Jewish historians Directors of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Scholars of Dutch art Scholars of Netherlandish art German art curators Dutch art curators

Approach to art history

Photo archive

Publications

References

Further reading

External links