The New Vienna School of Art History

Ian Verstegen gives us an account of the theory and practice of members of the so-called 'second' or 'younger' Viennese school associated with Hans Sedlmayr and Otto Pächt. He demonstrates the strong dependence of these writers on the work of nascent Gestalt psychology. Gestalt theory emerges as the master key to interpreting Sedlmayr and Pächt's ideas about art and history. Ian Verstegen is Associate Director of Visual Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Trained in Italian Renaissance art history, he also writes on art theory and historiography.