The History of Art as the History of Spirit

"The History of Art as the History of Spirit" is a collection of essays by Max Dvorak (1874–1921), an Austrian art historian, professor at the University of Vienna, and one of the founders of modern philosophy and art theory. Compiled by his students after his death, the book opened a five-volume collection of the works of the outstanding scholar, becoming the most complete reflection of his latest methodology. Dvorak begins his description of the evolution of European art with late antiquity and deliberately selects turning points—early Christian painting in the catacombs, late Gothic, and Mannerism—focusing on the conflicting nature of the creative spirit's quest, its eternal and tense dialogue with the reality of the visible world.
The book, which has become a classic of art studies, is presented to the reader in full, with the addition of the only article dedicated to the contemporary Dvorak the artist—Oskar Kokoschka.