The art historiographical odyssey of Ernst Diez

Abstract

The thesis traces the biography of Ernst Diez as a signifier of the transformations of Austro-German art historical scholarship in the first half of the twentieth century. It derives its incentive from the criticisms against Diez’s reading of Byzantine and Armenian precedents to Turkish art and architecture in his 1946 book Türk Sanatı. The thesis interprets this controversy as a confrontation of Diez’s academic and intellectual background in turn of the century Vienna. Diez’s biographical journey from Vienna to the United States and to the 1940s Turkey presents an art historiographical odyssey in which the art historiographical know-how of the beginning of the century, particularly as established in Vienna, confronts new contexts as well as re-definitions.