AN ANALYSIS: APPROACH OF JACOB BURCKHARDT AND MICHAEL BAXANDALL
Jacob Burckhardt and Michael Baxandall were prominent art historians, whose writings affected the
further study of the history of art. In particular, Burckhardt’s The Civilization of the Renaissance in
Italy (1860), and Baxandall’s Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy (1972) established a
significant position among historiographical publications with focus on the Renaissance. Moreover,
their successes simultaneously established positions of both authors among art historians. In
general, Burckhardt and Baxandall introduced by means of the publications new approaches to the
study of the history of art, and therefore changed the way art historians treated the art history
afterwards. This essay is based on a part of Burckhardt’s Civilization, which is titled the ‘Personality’,
and on the opening chapter from Baxandall’s Painting and Experience, which is entitled the
‘Conditions of Trade’. This essay aims to examine their approaches and use of language, which
specifically influences the content of their texts.
First, both authors are concerned with the environment, from which arts emerged during the
Renaissance. As mentioned before, each of them has achieved to introduce new approaches. Until
Burckhardt, writers on the art history were writing predominantly in the post-Vasarian tradition.
These writers, such as Karel von Mander or Joachim von Sandrart, were occupied with the lives of
artists, therefore examined the history of art through the artists’ experience.1 Nevertheless,
Burckhardt’s interest lay in “the background,”2 rather than in actual figures of artists, thus he
illustrates the surrounding society, the atmosphere of the period. As a result, he covers a range of
aspects of the Renaissance culture. However, this attempt to describe whole civilization is liable to
fail, as he avoids the arts, and the civilization can never be complete without the arts. A hundred
years later, Baxandall also proposed an innovative way of the study of the history of art. Unlike most
art historians, who re-enacted the art history from the survival artworks,3 he examines the art
1
Belting, 1987: 71.
Gilbert, 1986: 249.
3
The Independent.
2
history through the study of the “commercial relationship”4 between a patron and an artist and their
visual and mental environment. This method of selecting a specific area of focus gives the reader a
deeper insight into the particular subject, instead of brief knowledge on many topics, as is the case
of Burckhardt’s Civilization.
Second, it is worth noting that their specific use of sources was another new aspect in the study of
art history. Nevertheless, each of them worked with a different kind of sources; therefore, each
treated them in a different way. In the nineteenth century, Burckhardt was the first historian, who
used primary sources, in order to base on them academic writings and lectures.5 However, unlike
Baxandall, he only occasionally quotes them. On the other hand, he provides the reader a number of
footnotes, in which he gives additional information, such as, “By the year 1390 there was no longer
any prevailing fashion of dress for men at Florence, each preferring to clothe himself in his own
way.”6 This use of footnotes is a good means to engage the reader and make one more interested in
the topic. Like Burckhardt, Baxandall employed mainly primary sources. However, he did not use
only sources, such as treatises, but also studied contracts, letters, mathematical manuals and so
forth. These ‘re-discovered’ sources present interesting facts and show the period from a new
viewpoint. Also, he frequently quotes them in lengthy pieces of text. For instance, he presents a long
quotation of a contract for the Adoration of the Magi (Fig. 1), which was painted in 1488 by
Domenico Ghirlandio. In contrast to Burckhardt,7 he uses number of black and white images, but
their function is merely to provide an accompaniment to the contracts, as he does not explain on
them anything in particular. The same is true of the Adoration. In this case, Baxandall claims an
emphasis on the difference between the ultramarine and German blue, which was according to his
following arguments of a great concern to the Renaissance patrons. Hence the use of a colourful
image would be helpful, because the reader would be able to distinguish the difference, therefore to
4
Baxandall, 1972: 1.
Gilbert, 1986: 258.
6
Burckhardt, 1860: 82.
7
Burckhardt does not use any images.
5
fully understand the contract, which, as other contracts to which he devotes extensive parts of text,
deals with the formal elements of paintings.
Third, the hundred year gap between both writings is most apparent in the language each author
employs. Burckhardt uses generally poetic terms, which results in the prosaic character of the text.
Accordingly, the Personality is full of metaphors. Take for instance, “he [the Italian] was the firstborn
among the sons of modern Europe,”8 or “Italy began to swarm with individuality.”9 As a
consequence, the metaphors make the reader stop thinking about the text as an academic writing,
which leads to not taking the text as seriously as the author would probably intend. Furthermore,
the voice of the language is subjective, since a clear fascination with the Renaissance surfaces
through many of his statements. Take for example, “The Italians of the fourteenth century knew
little of false modesty or of hypocrisy in any shape.”10 Exaggerations of this kind, which he does not
support with any evidence, undermine his arguments and leave the reader suspicious about the
veracity of his conclusions. On the contrary, Baxandall employs simple and direct sentences and the
voice of his language is objective and reversed. In contrast to Burckhardt’s metaphors, Baxandall
often employs strong statements, on which he constructs his arguments. For example, “A fifteenth
century painting is a deposit of a social relationship,”11 or “Money is very important in the history of
art.”12 Another characteristic of his language is the use of “geological rhetoric,”13 observable in terms
such as “deposit,”14 “concretely”15 or “fossils,”16 which give the writing a touch of a scientific
treatise. The use of direct and strong statements together with the ‘geological rhetoric’ makes the
text solid and thoroughly constructed, resulting in persuasive arguments, which convince the reader
about the proposed conclusions.
8
Burckhardt, 1860: 81.
Burckhardt, 1860: 81.
10
Burckhardt, 1860: 82.
11
Baxandall, 1972: 1.
12
Baxandall, 1972: 1.
13
Good: seminar.
14
Baxandall, 1972: 1.
15
Baxandall, 1972: 1.
16
Baxandall, 1972: 2.
9
Fourth, Burckhardt and Baxandall share a considerable aspect in their writings – the masculinity of
language, which implies the omission of the role of women in the Renaissance Italy. It might be
understandable that Burckhardt does not include women in the Personality, because he himself lived
in an era, when women were restricted from many rights,17 which might have an effect on his
approach to the writing. Furthermore, in Personality he focuses on the psychological side of the
period, and rather writes in abstract terms. Therefore he does not deal with any specific facts, and
the question of gender does not influence his concept. However, in Baxandall’s text, the lack of
acknowledgement of women’s part in the Renaissance society is a significant issue, as women then
played an important role with regard to patronage.18 Baxandall claims that “it is not very profitable
to speculate about individual clients’ motives in commissioning pictures,”19 but it would be beneficial
if he covered the difference between female and male patrons, since the type of the commissions
was in that time gender-based. Men had more freedom in their choice of subject than women, who
could commission only funerary monuments, such as funerary chapels, tombs and altarpieces.
Moreover, the function of these monuments was to commemorate men of the family,20 as illustrates
the case of the Entombment by Raphael (Fig. 2), which was commissioned by Dona Atalante to
commemorate her dead son. Nevertheless, there were exceptions, among which the most
significant position held Isabela d’Este. Unlike other female patrons, she collected paintings based
on classical myths and sought to have portraits of herself.21 She commissioned, for example, the
Combat of Love and Chastity by Perugino (Fig. 3) or a portrait by Titian (Fig. 4). Therefore, Baxandall
fails to illustrate the “commercial relationship,”22 since the role of female patrons has a significant
influence on the general view of the Renaissance patronage.
17
Pollock, 1988: ?.
King, 1998: 1.
19
Baxandall, 1972: 2.
20
King, 1998: 99-128.
21
Mateer, 2000: 63-64.
22
Baxandall, 1972: 1.
18
In conclusion, it is apparent that none of the texts is perfect. The weaknesses of Burckhadrt’s
approach are the lack of recognition of arts and his use of language, as the prosaic character is
inappropriate for an academic writing. On the other hand, his footnotes are engaging and would be
appreciated in Baxandall’s text. On the contrary, Baxandall’s strength is his language, whose
directness successfully convinces the reader about its credibility. Unfortunately, the choice of images
does not contribute to comprehension of the provided evidences. Above all, the lack of
acknowledgement of women in the Renaissance undermines Baxandall’s concept of a primer in the
social history. Eventually, even though both authors examine the Renaissance, their approaches, as
analysed in this essay, are overall different, and it would be interesting to read entire books to see
how author’s approaches work as a whole.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Baxandall, M. Painting and Experience in Fifteenth century Italy: a primer in the social history
of pictorial style (London, 1972).
Burckhardt, J. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860; Vienna, 1937).
Secondary Sources
Belting, H. The End of the History of Art? (Chicago, 1987).
Elmer, P. ‘Court culture in the Renaissance’, in D. Mateer (ed.), The Renaissance in Europe
(London, 2000), 1-92.
Gilbert, F. ‘Jacob Burckhardt's Student Years: The Road to Cultural History’, Journal of the
History of Ideas, 47 no. 2 (April - June 1986), 249-274.
Good, Caroline. "Patronage and Period Eye." Seminar, University of York, November 16,
2012.
King, C. Renaissance: Women Patrons (Manchester, 1998).
‘Professor Michael Baxandall: Influential art historian with a rigorously cerebral approach to
the study of painting and sculpture’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-michael-baxandall-influentialart-historian-with-a-rigorously-cerebral-approach-to-the-study-of-painting-and-sculpture901782.html (accessed 6 December 2012).
Pollock, G. ‘Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity’, Vision and Difference: Femininity,
Feminism and the Histories of Art (London, 1988), 50-90.
Illustrations
(Fig. 1) Domenico Ghirlandaio. Adoration of the Magi, 1488, Ospedale degli Innocenti,
Florence. Tempera on panel, 285 cm × 243 cm.
(Fig. 2) Raphael. Entombment, 1507, Galleria Borghese, Rome. Oil on wood, 184 cm
× 176 cm.
(Fig. 3) Pietro Perugino. Combat of Love and Chastity, 1503, Louvre, Paris. Tempera on
canvas, 160 cm × 191 cm.
(Fig. 4) Titian. Portrait of Isabella d'Este, 1534/36, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Oil on
canvas, 102 cm × 64 cm.