DOI Artikel:
Hoffmann, Annette; Murovec, Barbara [Mitarb.]: Josef Strzygowski and Avguštin Stegenšek Some Remarks on their Jerusalem Studies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73804#0070
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Despite Dvorak's negative judgment, Strzygowski in
his lecture The Origins of Christian Art, delivered in Lon-
don and Oxford in 1911 and published shortly afterwards
in the Burlington Magazine, considered (in support of his
thesis which had been endorsed by Heisenberg) Jerusa-
lem as a focus of the Christian world' and as, from the
fourth century onwards, a new capital beside Rome and
Byzantium'.20 He stated that Jerusalem superseded Alex-
andria and Antioch as the centre of art'.21 In the same year,
1911, Anton Baumstark (1872-1948), a philologist, orien-
talist and literary scholar who received his doctorate in
Leipzig, habilitated in Heidelberg and was a private schol-
ar at the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome from 1899 to
1905,22 published a critical review of Heisenberg's book
in the journal Oriens Christianus, which he founded in
1901.23 Four years after this review, in 1915, Baumstark's
own monograph on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ap-
peared, in which he refuted Heisenberg's reconstruction
in detail and critically wrote that Strzygowski, who had
praised it, was unable to escape the impression of the cap-
tivating aspects of Heisenberg's work which, for its part,
maintained an attitude of unconditional allegiance to
Strzygowski and the ideas he advocated.24 This harsh as-
sessment seems all the more remarkable because Strzy-
gowski and Baumstark were in constant dialogue with
each other.25 On the other hand, however, Baumstark's
views also show that the debate over 'Orient or Rome' ul-
Cervantes gegen Windmuhlen zu kampfen', M. Dvorak, 'Strzy-
gowski, Josef, Orient oder Rom', Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen,
164, 1902, pp. 693-711, here 711. In 1901, Alois Riegl's Die spatro-
mische Kunst-Industrie nach den Funden in Osterreich-Ungarn
was also published in Vienna, which Dvorak, who in his review
defended Franz Wickhoff s theses on Roman art, did not men-
tion.
20 J. Strzygowski, 'The Origin of Christian Art', The Burlington
Magazine for Connoisseurs, 20, 1911, no. 105, pp. 149-153, here 146.
21 Ibidem.
22 Cf. H. Kaufhold, 'Josef Strzygowski, der „Oriens Christianus"
und Anton Baumstark', in Von Biala nach Wien, pp. 70-96, in par-
ticular pp. 70-71 (as in note 12).
23 A. Baumstark, 'Besprechungen', Oriens Christianus, n.s. 1, 1911,
pp. 349-353.
24 'Es hat, wie allem verbluffenden Neuen, der Heisenbergschen
These an rascher Zustimmung nicht gefehlt. Insbesondere hat
kein Geringerer als unser aller Lehrer und Fuhrer in der Erkennt-
nis der kunstgeschichtlichen Bedeutung des chrislichen Ostens
J. Strzygowski zunachst dem Eindruck der bestechenden Seiten
einer Arbeit sich nicht zu entziehen vermocht, die ihm selbst und
den von ihm vertretenen Gedanken gegenuber ihrerseits die Hal-
tung einer unbedingten Gefolgschaft wahrte', idem, Die Modes-
tianischen und die Konstantinischen Bauten am Heiligen Grabe
zu Jerusalem. Eine Nachprufung der Forschungsergebnisse von
A. Heisenberg, Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche. Zwei Basiliken
Konstantins, Paderborn 1915, p. 5.
25 Strzygowski had already written two essays for Baumstark's first
edition of Oriens Christianus in 1901, followed by five more in the
timately flared up with the reconstruction attempts of the
Constantinian building and the southern faęade of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The great studies regarding the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in the first and second decades of the twenti-
eth century were apparently also formative for Avgustin
Stegensek's Jerusalem studies. Before studying art history
with Josef Strzygowski in Graz, however, Stegensek had
been ordained a priest in 1898 and was sent by the Bish-
op of Lavantine, Michael Napotnik (1850-1922), to Rome,
where he stayed from 1899 until 1902. There he lived and
studied at the Romisches Institut der Gorres-Gesellschaft
on the Campo Santo Teutonico, where he dedicated him-
self to archaeology and early Christian art, at the same
time that Baumstark was a private scholar there. The rec-
tor of the Campo Santo was Anton de Waal (1837-1917),26
and his closest collaborator was Josef Wilpert (1857-1944),
who represented de Waal during periods of absence.
Stegensek, Baumstark and Wilpert may have been in ac-
tive contact in the Roman circle of Christian archaeolo-
gists; Stegensek and Baumstark both took part in Wil-
pert's seminar 'Ubungen des Archaologischen Institutes'
in 1901,27 i.e. the year when Strzygowski's book Orient oder
Rom was published. In that period, Wilpert became one of
the greatest advocates of Roman primacy and later one of
the most determined opponents of Strzygowski's theses. It
is illuminating to locate Stegensek's work between these
two opposite positions.
Following his return from Rome, and preparing the
Styrian topographies, Stegensek began to study West-
ern ecclesiastical art as copies of the spaces and build-
ings of Christ's passion. He focused in particular on ar-
chitectural copies of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre and
summarised his findings in his book on the Via Crucis,
published in 1912. However, it was not until 1913 that his
efforts to visit the Holy Land would be fulfilled, so the
analyses are based on literature.28 In his archive there is
following years. Cf. also H. Kaufhold, 'Josef Strzygowski', p. 71
(as in note 22).
26 On Anton de Waal in Rome, see: T. Brechenmacher, 'Ultra-
montanismus in Rom. Anton de Waal und vier Papste', in Pdpst-
lichkeit und Patriotismus. Der Campo Santo Teutonico. Ort der
Deutschen in Rom zwischen Risorgimento und Erstem Weltkrieg
(1870-1918), eds. S. Heid, K.-J. Hummel, Freiburg-Basel-Wien
2018, pp. 233-262.
27 S. Heid, 'Der christliche Archaologe Joseph Wilpert und das Ro-
mische Institut der Gorres-Gesellschaft', Romische Quartalschrift
fur christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte, 101, 2006,
no. 1/2, pp. 4-49; cf. also B. Murovec, 'Drobci za zgodovi-
no in metodologijo slovenske umetnostne zgodovine. Avgustin
Stegensek in barocno stropno slikarstvo' [Fragments for the
History and Methodology of Slovenian Art History. Avgustin
Stegensek and Baroque Ceiling Painting], Studia Historica Slo-
venica, 7, 2007, no. 3/4, pp. 893-908.
28 For Stegensek's journey to Jerusalem, see F. K. Lukman, 'Zad-
njih deset let dr. Avgustina Stegenska' [The Last Ten Years of Dr.
Despite Dvorak's negative judgment, Strzygowski in
his lecture The Origins of Christian Art, delivered in Lon-
don and Oxford in 1911 and published shortly afterwards
in the Burlington Magazine, considered (in support of his
thesis which had been endorsed by Heisenberg) Jerusa-
lem as a focus of the Christian world' and as, from the
fourth century onwards, a new capital beside Rome and
Byzantium'.20 He stated that Jerusalem superseded Alex-
andria and Antioch as the centre of art'.21 In the same year,
1911, Anton Baumstark (1872-1948), a philologist, orien-
talist and literary scholar who received his doctorate in
Leipzig, habilitated in Heidelberg and was a private schol-
ar at the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome from 1899 to
1905,22 published a critical review of Heisenberg's book
in the journal Oriens Christianus, which he founded in
1901.23 Four years after this review, in 1915, Baumstark's
own monograph on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ap-
peared, in which he refuted Heisenberg's reconstruction
in detail and critically wrote that Strzygowski, who had
praised it, was unable to escape the impression of the cap-
tivating aspects of Heisenberg's work which, for its part,
maintained an attitude of unconditional allegiance to
Strzygowski and the ideas he advocated.24 This harsh as-
sessment seems all the more remarkable because Strzy-
gowski and Baumstark were in constant dialogue with
each other.25 On the other hand, however, Baumstark's
views also show that the debate over 'Orient or Rome' ul-
Cervantes gegen Windmuhlen zu kampfen', M. Dvorak, 'Strzy-
gowski, Josef, Orient oder Rom', Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen,
164, 1902, pp. 693-711, here 711. In 1901, Alois Riegl's Die spatro-
mische Kunst-Industrie nach den Funden in Osterreich-Ungarn
was also published in Vienna, which Dvorak, who in his review
defended Franz Wickhoff s theses on Roman art, did not men-
tion.
20 J. Strzygowski, 'The Origin of Christian Art', The Burlington
Magazine for Connoisseurs, 20, 1911, no. 105, pp. 149-153, here 146.
21 Ibidem.
22 Cf. H. Kaufhold, 'Josef Strzygowski, der „Oriens Christianus"
und Anton Baumstark', in Von Biala nach Wien, pp. 70-96, in par-
ticular pp. 70-71 (as in note 12).
23 A. Baumstark, 'Besprechungen', Oriens Christianus, n.s. 1, 1911,
pp. 349-353.
24 'Es hat, wie allem verbluffenden Neuen, der Heisenbergschen
These an rascher Zustimmung nicht gefehlt. Insbesondere hat
kein Geringerer als unser aller Lehrer und Fuhrer in der Erkennt-
nis der kunstgeschichtlichen Bedeutung des chrislichen Ostens
J. Strzygowski zunachst dem Eindruck der bestechenden Seiten
einer Arbeit sich nicht zu entziehen vermocht, die ihm selbst und
den von ihm vertretenen Gedanken gegenuber ihrerseits die Hal-
tung einer unbedingten Gefolgschaft wahrte', idem, Die Modes-
tianischen und die Konstantinischen Bauten am Heiligen Grabe
zu Jerusalem. Eine Nachprufung der Forschungsergebnisse von
A. Heisenberg, Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche. Zwei Basiliken
Konstantins, Paderborn 1915, p. 5.
25 Strzygowski had already written two essays for Baumstark's first
edition of Oriens Christianus in 1901, followed by five more in the
timately flared up with the reconstruction attempts of the
Constantinian building and the southern faęade of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The great studies regarding the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in the first and second decades of the twenti-
eth century were apparently also formative for Avgustin
Stegensek's Jerusalem studies. Before studying art history
with Josef Strzygowski in Graz, however, Stegensek had
been ordained a priest in 1898 and was sent by the Bish-
op of Lavantine, Michael Napotnik (1850-1922), to Rome,
where he stayed from 1899 until 1902. There he lived and
studied at the Romisches Institut der Gorres-Gesellschaft
on the Campo Santo Teutonico, where he dedicated him-
self to archaeology and early Christian art, at the same
time that Baumstark was a private scholar there. The rec-
tor of the Campo Santo was Anton de Waal (1837-1917),26
and his closest collaborator was Josef Wilpert (1857-1944),
who represented de Waal during periods of absence.
Stegensek, Baumstark and Wilpert may have been in ac-
tive contact in the Roman circle of Christian archaeolo-
gists; Stegensek and Baumstark both took part in Wil-
pert's seminar 'Ubungen des Archaologischen Institutes'
in 1901,27 i.e. the year when Strzygowski's book Orient oder
Rom was published. In that period, Wilpert became one of
the greatest advocates of Roman primacy and later one of
the most determined opponents of Strzygowski's theses. It
is illuminating to locate Stegensek's work between these
two opposite positions.
Following his return from Rome, and preparing the
Styrian topographies, Stegensek began to study West-
ern ecclesiastical art as copies of the spaces and build-
ings of Christ's passion. He focused in particular on ar-
chitectural copies of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre and
summarised his findings in his book on the Via Crucis,
published in 1912. However, it was not until 1913 that his
efforts to visit the Holy Land would be fulfilled, so the
analyses are based on literature.28 In his archive there is
following years. Cf. also H. Kaufhold, 'Josef Strzygowski', p. 71
(as in note 22).
26 On Anton de Waal in Rome, see: T. Brechenmacher, 'Ultra-
montanismus in Rom. Anton de Waal und vier Papste', in Pdpst-
lichkeit und Patriotismus. Der Campo Santo Teutonico. Ort der
Deutschen in Rom zwischen Risorgimento und Erstem Weltkrieg
(1870-1918), eds. S. Heid, K.-J. Hummel, Freiburg-Basel-Wien
2018, pp. 233-262.
27 S. Heid, 'Der christliche Archaologe Joseph Wilpert und das Ro-
mische Institut der Gorres-Gesellschaft', Romische Quartalschrift
fur christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte, 101, 2006,
no. 1/2, pp. 4-49; cf. also B. Murovec, 'Drobci za zgodovi-
no in metodologijo slovenske umetnostne zgodovine. Avgustin
Stegensek in barocno stropno slikarstvo' [Fragments for the
History and Methodology of Slovenian Art History. Avgustin
Stegensek and Baroque Ceiling Painting], Studia Historica Slo-
venica, 7, 2007, no. 3/4, pp. 893-908.
28 For Stegensek's journey to Jerusalem, see F. K. Lukman, 'Zad-
njih deset let dr. Avgustina Stegenska' [The Last Ten Years of Dr.