Wittkower, Rudolf J.
WITTKOWER, RUDOLF J.
WITTKOWER, RUDOLF J. (1901–1971), historian of art and architecture. Born in Berlin, he studied at the universities of Berlin and Munich. From 1923 to 1928 he worked in Italy, and in 1924 was appointed lecturer at Cologne University. When Hitler came to power, Wittkower emigrated to England and became professor at the University of London (1949–55). In 1954 he moved to the United States, where he was made chairman of the department of art history and archaeology at Columbia University, New York.
Wittkower is known for his studies of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art, such as Art and Architecture in Italy 1600–1750 (1958) and books on Bernini and the Caracci. His Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (1949), a study of the principles underlying the architecture of the Italian Renaissance, influenced the thinking of students of architecture.
add. bibliography:
D.M. Reynolds, Selected Lectures of Rudolf Wittkower: The Impact of Non-European Civilization on the Art of the West (1989); R. and M. Wittkower, Kuenstler. Aussenseiter der Gesellschaft, (1993); R. Wittkower, Allegorie und der Wandel der Symbole in Antike und Renaissance (1996).