Rudolf Wittkower

Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a German art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the United States. Despite having a British father who stayed in Germany after his studies, he was born and raised in Berlin.¹²

Early life

Wittkower was born in Berlin to Henry Wittkower (1865–1942) and Gertrude Ansbach (Wittkower) (1876–1965).¹ His siblings were Kate Wittkower (1900-1968), Werner Joseph Wittkower (1903-1997), and Elly Friedmann (1912-1988).³

Career

Rudolf Wittkower moved to London in 1933 with his wife Margot (née Holzmann) because they were both Jewish and were fleeing Nazi Germany.⁴ He taught at the Warburg Institute, University of London from 1934 to 1956, was appointed Durning Lawrence professor at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London in 1949 and then moved to the United States to work at Columbia University from 1956 to 1969 where he was chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology.

Among Wittkower's books were monographs on Bernini and Michelangelo, volumes in standard textbook series, and more individual subjects such as his Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, "his most significant book". This introduced an in depth analysis of the and his relation to sixteenth century music theory. Part Four specifically deals with how and why Palladio adapted harmonic musical ratios and incorporated them into the physical proportions of his buildings. Although this theory of Palladian proportions was universally accepted after the book's release, recent works in art history have made it the subject of much controversy. Wittkower had encountered this notion that musical harmony may act in a manner analogous to visual harmony in , where it was also noted by .