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Horst Bredekamp

ホルスト・ブレーデカンプ

Horst Bredekamp

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1947-04-29 （Kiel）
Nationality
Germany
Languages
German, English

Career

Occupations
art historian, visual historian, university professor
Active Years
1974-
Affiliations
Humboldt University Berlin (Art History), Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin (Permanent Fellow), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (Fellow), Getty Center (Fellow), Collegium Budapest (Fellow)
Memberships
Academia Europaea (member), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (member), Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (member)
Influenced By
Aby Warburg, Hans Belting (debated)
Influenced
Researchers in Bildwissenschaft and interdisciplinary image studies

Education

Philipps-Universität Marburg
Humanities / Art History / Philosophy / Archaeology
Degree: 博士（Dr.）
Period: 1960s–1974
Year of Graduation: 1974
Country: Germany
Doctoral thesis on art as a medium of social conflicts
Universities of Kiel, Munich, Berlin (studies and exchanges)
Art history, philosophy, sociology
Country: Germany
Studied at multiple German universities

Awards

Sigmund Freud Prize
2001
Organization: German Academy for Language and Poetry
Result: 受賞
Aby M. Warburg Prize
2004
Organization: City of Hamburg
Result: 受賞
Max-Planck-Science Prize
2006
Organization: Max Planck Society and the Humboldt Foundation
Result: 受賞
Richard Hamann Prize
2009
Organization: Philipps-Universität Marburg
Result: 受賞
Meyer-Struckmann Prize for Human and Social Science Research
2010
Organization: unknown
Result: 受賞
Elected member of the Academia Europaea
2010
Organization: Academia Europaea
Result: 選出
Fritz Winter Prize
2012
Organization: Fritz Winter Foundation
Result: 受賞
Berlin Science Prize
2012
Organization: State of Berlin
Result: 受賞
Pour le Mérite
2014
Organization: Pour le Mérite (for Sciences and Arts)
Result: 叙勲
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (with star)
2015
Organization: Federal Republic of Germany
Result: 叙勲
Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2016
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Result: 選出
Schiller Prize of the City of Marbach
2017
Organization: City of Marbach
Result: 受賞
Laurea Honoris Causa in Philosophy
2022
Organization: Università di Torino
Result: 授与
Member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts
2024
Organization: Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts
Result: 選出
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Knight's Cross)
2024
Organization: Italian Republic / Embassy
Result: 叙勲

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Art as a Medium of Social Conflicts. Image Struggles from Late Antiquity to the Hussite Revolution

1975 art history

Based on his doctoral thesis, analyzes art as a medium of social conflicts and discusses 'image struggles' from late antiquity to the Hussite revolution.

images and powerreligious symbolismsocial conflict

Galilei the Artist. The Moon, the Sun, the Hand

2007 art history / history of science

Presents research around manuscripts and drawings attributed to Galileo, discussing the relationship between science and images. Later involved in controversy over a forged copy.

scientific imageryauthenticity controversiesvisual knowledge

Image Acts. A Systematic Approach to Visual Agency

2017 image studies / theoretical

Systematically discusses the agency of images (Image Acts), elucidating how images perform actions and contribute to knowledge formation.

agency of imagesknowledge formationinterdisciplinary methods

Bibliography

  • Art as a Medium of Social Conflicts. Image Struggles from Late Antiquity to the Hussite Revolution (1975)
  • Botticelli: Primavera. Florence as the Garden of Venus (1988)
  • Darwin's Corals. Early Evolutionary Diagrams and the Tradition of Natural History (2005)
  • Galilei the Artist. The Moon, the Sun, the Hand (2007)
  • Image Acts. A Systematic Approach to Visual Agency (2017)
  • Michelangelo (essays, 2009/2021)

Translations of Works

  • English
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Chinese
  • Japanese

Style & Themes

Literary Style
interdisciplinary and analytical academic styleblend of image critique and theoretical analysis
Recurring Motifs
agency of images (Image Acts)technical and scientific imageryimages, power and political representationWarburgian tradition (Bildwissenschaft)

Legacy

Bredekamp is a leading scholar of Bildwissenschaft and visual culture in the German-speaking world, reevaluating the role of images in science, technology, and medicine through interdisciplinary methods. As a founding director of the Humboldt Forum he influenced museum and collection history, and his career also includes controversy over authenticity in Galileo-related research.

Museums

  • Humboldt Forum Berlin, Berlin Palace (Berliner Stadtschloss) Opened in 2020

Academic Societies

  • Academia Europaea
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts

Archives

  • Humboldt University Art History Department archives

Trivia

  • Bredekamp's 2007 research published in Galilei der Künstler became controversial when the copy studied was later shown to be a forgery (identified in 2012).
  • From 2015 to 2018 he was one of the founding directors of the Humboldt Forum alongside Neil MacGregor and Hermann Parzinger.