Karl Schnaase

Karl Schnaase (7 September 1798 – 20 May 1875) was a distinguished German art historian and jurist. He was one of the founders of modern art history, and the author of one of the first surveys of the history of art.

Schnaase was born in Danzig (Gdańsk) in West Prussia. As a law student at the University of Heidelberg, Schnaase attended the lectures of Hegel on philosophy in the spring of 1817. In the fall of 1818 he followed Hegel to the University of Berlin, where he attended the lectures that would become the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. However, his philosophical studies were cut short when he passed his first juristic exam in July 1819, and received a position in the municipal court of Danzig. Before returning to Danzing, Schnaase travelled to Dresden, and was deeply impressed by the art collections of that city.

For much of the 1820s Schnaase was employed as an assessor in Königsberg, while maintaining his interest in art. From 1826 through 1827 he embarked on a year-long journey through Italy, visiting Rome, Naples, Florence, and Milan, among other cities. At the end of his journey he hiked through the Tyrol and the Bavarian Alps to Munich, where he became ill.

Settled once again in Königsberg, Schnaase began to plan a book based on his Italian journey, which was however never completed. In 1828 his legal career took him to Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), and in 1829 south again to Düsseldorf, whence he was able to acquaint himself with the medieval monuments of the Rhineland. He also found in the Rhineland a more congenial society in which to pursue his interest in art history, and in particular developed a friendship with Gottfried Kinkel.

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