Phantom Rome and wooden Atlantis: the Vienna School and the research on timber architecture in Central and Eastern Europe between the World Wars

Abstract

Wooden architecture played a crucial role in Josef Strzygowski’s theory of civilisation. He presented it as the authentic Volkskunst, expressing the inventive spirit of the North, as opposed to the Machtkunst radiating from Rome and Constantinople. Strzygowski, who granted an equal place to Germanic and Slavic peoples in this ‘wooden Atlantis’, was a tactical ally for art historians in Central and Eastern Europe, who used timber architecture to construct an autonomous development of national art. At the opposite pole were scholars under the intellectual influence of ‘phantom Rome’ – the Riegl’s and Dvořák’s Vienna. They denied the original character of wooden buildings – perceived as a reflection of monumental architecture – and saw their opponents, whatever the source of their views, as adherents of the pro-Eastern-oriented part of the Viennese school. Today’s history of art history also seems to underestimate the external – mainly Russian – influence on Strzygowski’s concepts.