Znaczenie Pommersche Kunstgeschichte (1840) Franza Kuglera w odkrywaniu sztuki Pomorza
The Significance of Franz Kugler’s Pommersche Kunstgeschichte (1840) in Discovering the Art of Pomerania

Summary/Abstract: Franz Theodor Kugler’s (1808–1858) work on the general history of art is well known owing to English and German speaking scholars. Researchers from outside Pomerania are less familiar (or not at all) with the content and significance of the Pommersche Kunstgeschichte published in 1840. The purpose of this article is to discuss the value of this publication. It is one of the first studies of Pomeranian art history in Europe and in the world. Kugler described the most important monuments of the region, especially those located in towns and along transportation routes, which he visited in the summer of 1839. Although he noticed that art in Pomerania originated in pagan times, he mainly demonstrated examples of Christian art from the period of the twelfth century onwards. Pomeranian art was thus Christian and Germanic to him. His analysis concludes with examples from the eighteenth, and a few from the nineteenth century. He was the first researcher to pose the question of the existence of Pomeranian art as a specific art, distinctive from others. In order to address this ques- tion he tried to identify its characteristics, which the article tries to point out. Many of Kugler’s theses were maintained and developed by Polish art historians after 1945, which proves the value of his intuition as a researcher. Kugler’s monograph laid the foundation for further research into Pomeranian art. Paradoxically, however, its exist- ence delayed work on the first comprehensive inventory of the region’s historic sites because it was considered by some to be a quasi-inventory of historic monuments.

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