Wilhelm Lübke

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Wilhelm Lübke (1826–1893) was a German art historian, born at Dortmund. He studied at Bonn and Berlin; was professor of architecture at the Berlin Bauakademie (1857–61) and professor of the history of art at Zurich (1861-66), Stuttgart (1866–85), and Karlsruhe (1885–93). He wrote, in a compresehensive and readable style, numerous valuable works, including:

  • Vorschule vor Geschichte der Kirchenbaukunst des Mittelalters (1852; sixth edition, under different title, 1873; English translation, Ecclesiastical Art in Germany during the Middle Ages, Edinburgh, 1870)
  • Geschichte der Architektur, (Leipzig, 1855; sixth edition, 1884–86)
  • Grundriss der Kunstgeschichte (1860; thirteenth edition, 1899–1907; English translation, under the title Outlines of the History of Art by Clarence Cook, 1878, and reëdited by Russell Sturgis, New York, 1904)
  • Geschichte der Plastik (third edition, 1880; translation by Bunnet under the title History of Sculpture, London, 1878)

Lübke was one of the pioneer writers on art history in Germany. His works were for their day both scholarly and appreciative, and correlate the epochs of art history with the great historical periods.