Hans Sedlmayr

Who was Hans Sedlmayr?

Hans Sedlmayr was an Austrian art historian. Sedlmayr first studied architecture at Vienna's Technische Hochschule between 1918 and 1920. Afterward, he continued his education at the University of Vienna, where he studied art history under Max Dvořák, until Dvořák's death in 1921. He continued at the University of Vienna under Dvořák's successor, Julius von Schlosser, who advised Sedlmayr's dissertation on Austrian baroque architect, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, which was published in 1925. Sedlmayr held a chair in Art History at the University of Vienna from 1936 until 1945, then at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich from 1951 until 1964. In 1964 he was appointed as visiting professor at the University of Salzburg, where he established the art history curriculum. Sedlmayr was a strong supporter of the preservation of the old town in Salzburg. He stressed the importance of studying art and architecture in their historical and social context. He specialized in the study of Baroque architecture and wrote a book on the churches of Francesco Borromini.