Competing images: illustrated volumes by Max Dvořák and his contemporaries shaping national Art History

Abstract

This article focuses on the visual material of illustrated volumes of art and architectural histories produced and published by Max Dvořák and his contemporaries. On the one hand, such images were considered necessary instruments to disseminate art-historical knowledge. As ‘visual archives’, they served as collections of scholarly working objects. On the other hand, the images moreover became visual representatives of heritage, constructing national identities in Central Europe and having a lasting influence on art historical discourses. This article considers how audience and publishing requirements, technical possibilities of the visualisation and image reproduction processes and lastly ideologies shaped the images of (national) art of the time.