Wilhelm Fraenger

Wilhelm Fraenger (born with Erlangen the June 5th 1890 - died with Potsdam the February 19th 1964) was a historian of German art.

Biography

Specialist in the time of the Revolt of the bumpkins and the Mysticism of the end of the the Middle Ages, Wilhelm Fraenger wrote fundamental works on Jörg Ratgeb (of which he is the true Re-discoverer), Matthias Grünewald and Jerome Bosch; this last book was very influential at its time though of an extreme complexity, because it was the first to approach the work of the painter under the angle of the Occultisme, of the esotericism and the Sorcellerie. The most recent work devoted to Bosch however tends to be diverted this approach.

The style of Fraenger is particularly brilliant, sharp, precise and spiritual; it is with Sigmund Freud the only scientist of German language of the modern time whose books (especially the “Grünewald”) are read almost like detective novels. Marxist, Fraenger lost its post of professor as of the advent of the Nazis, in 1933. After the Second world war, he lived in GDR. Its political vision is perceptible with the reading of its Monographie of Ratgeb, which he sees like a pre characteristic Révolution naire. More recent work however, there too, relativized this image.

External bonds

Biography (in German)

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