Draft:Michael Viktor Schwarz

Michael Viktor Schwarz (born 9 December 1956 in Heilbronn) is a German art historian specializing in Gothic sculpture and the painter Giotto. He has been a tenured Professor of Art History at the University of Vienna in Austria since 1998.

Life
Schwarz received his doctorate from the University of Mainz in 1983. After working briefly at the University of Freiburg, he was awarded a research scholarship from the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome. In 1991 he completed his habilitation at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg. From 1992 to 1998 Schwarz was a professor at the University of Trier. In 1998 he took over a newly created chair at the Technical University of Dresden, but in the same year, he moved to the University of Vienna, where he succeeded Gerhard Schmidt as full professor.

Schwarz served as Dean of the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna from 2006 to 2012 and as Chairman of the Senate of the University of Vienna from 2015 to 2022.

Key areas of research
Schwarz has dedicated his research and teaching primarily to the art history of the Middle Ages on both sides of the Alps and to the function of visual media in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. His main topics of research are Gothic sculpture and the work of the painter Giotto di Bondone. In recent years, Schwarz has been shifting his focus more towards illuminated manuscripts as part of the research group at the Otto Pächt Archive. His methodological work looks at the theory of style and the pre-modern image.

Selected books

 * Die Mosaiken des Baptisteriums in Florenz. Drei Studien zur Florentiner Kunstgeschichte, Böhlau, Cologne 1997.
 * Visuelle Medien im christlichen Kult. Fallstudien aus dem 13. bis 16. Jahrhundert], Böhlau, Vienna 2002.
 * Giotto, C. H. Beck, Munich 2009.
 * Giotto the Painter. Vol. 1: Life (with a Collection of the Documents and Texts up to Vasari and an Appendix of Sources on the Arena Chapel), by Michael Viktor Schwarz and Pia Theis with Andreas Zajic and Michaela Zöschg; Vol. 2: Works, by Michael Viktor Schwarz; Vol. 3: Survival (Works and Practices up to Michelangelo), by Michael Viktor Schwarz, Böhlau, Vienna 2023. ISBN 9783205217015.

Selected articles

 * Eine frühmittelalterliche Umgestaltung der Pantheon-Vorhalle, In: Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana 26, 1990, pp. 1–29.
 * On the Construction of Reality and Imagery in Jan van Eyck and Woody Allen, In: Artibus et Historiae 49, 2004, pp. 19–31.
 * Übermalungen und Remakes: Stil als Medium, in: Stilfragen zur Kunst des Mittelalters. Reimer, Berlin 2006, pp. 187–204.
 * Poesia e verità: una biographia critica di Giotto, in: Giotto e il Trecento: "Il più Sovrano Maestro stato in dipintura". Ausstellungskatalog Rom. Skira, Mailand 2009, pp. 9–29.
 * Padua, its Arena and the Arena Chapel: a liturgical ensemble, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 10, 2010, pp. 39–64.
 * Goldgrund im Mittelalter: "Don't ask for the meaning, ask for the use!", in: Gold. Ausstellungskatalog Wien, Belvedere. Hirmer, München 2011, pp. 29–37.
 * Figure of Memory and Figure of the Past. Giotto's Double Life - With a Side-Glance at Joseph Beuys, in: Studies of Art History 46: "The Challenges of Biographical Research in Art History of Today", Helsinki 2013, pp. 14–23.
 * Ubi Pictor ibi Roma: local colour and modern form in Stefaneschi's Codice di San Giorgio, in: Wege zum illuminierten Buch. Herstellungsbedingungen für Buchmalerei in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. Böhlau, Wien, Köln, Weimar 2014, pp. 105–124.
 * Zackenstil des Südens: Zur Höllenlandschaft im Florentiner Baptisterium, ihren Voraussetzungen und Wirkungen, In: Christine Beier, Michaela Schuller-Juckes (Eds,), Bild- und Buchkultur des 13. Jahrhunderts, Vienna 2020, pp. 33-50.
 * In sul fonte del mio battesmo: Dante's baptismal font in an unknown floor plan of the Florentine baptistery, In: Rivista d'arte, ser. 5, 11, 2021 (2023), pp. 1-15.