Pozitivistická metoda dějin umění a její nepřátelé. Alfred Woltmann v diskusi

This contribution presents discussions among experts in the 1860s and 1870s, focusing on those in which Alfred Woltmann (1841–1880), the first full professor of the history of art at the Prague university, had participated. Woltmann came to be known especially for his criticism of forged glosses in medieval manuscripts which featured Slavic names and were thus supposed to attest to the Bohemian origin of those works. Nevertheless, he also participated in other controversies related to the originality of Czech fine arts, interpretation of the work of Hans Holbein the Younger, and the like. These discussions took the form of fights over who is competent to judge the subject: historians of art, artists, or amateur experts. Other debates focused on scientific methods which were coming into conflict with literary writing about arts (as represented by, e.g., the well-known art historian Hermann Grimm). The author highlights the often oversimplified interpretation of these debates.