Full Name: Metz, Peter
Gender: male
Date Born: 1901
Date Died: 1985
Place Born: Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany
Place Died: Berlin, Germany
Home Country/ies: Germany
Subject Area(s): Medieval (European) and sculpture (visual works)
Medievalist, speciality in sculpture
Metzler Kunsthistoriker Lexikon: zweihundert Porträts deutschsprachiger Autoren aus vier Jahrhunderten. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1999, pp. 267-69.
Medievalist, speciality in sculpture
Full Name: Metternich, Wolfgang
Gender: male
Date Born: unknown
Date Died: unknown
Home Country/ies: Germany
Subject Area(s): architecture (object genre), Italian (culture or style), and sculpture (visual works)
historian of Italian art and architecture
Bazin 435
historian of Italian art and architecture
Full Name: Mesuret, Robert
Gender: male
Date Born: unknown
Date Died: unknown
Home Country/ies: France
Les Expositions de l’Académie royale de Toulouse de 1751 à 1791. toulouse, 1972.
Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l’histoire de l’art; de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986 p. 495
Full Name: Messer, Thomas M.
Other Names:
Gender: male
Date Born: 09 February 1920
Place Born: Bratislava, Slovakia
Home Country/ies: United States
Subject Area(s): Modern (style or period)
Director of the Guggenheim Museum. Messer’s father, Richard Messer (Meszleny) (1881-?), was also an art historian (and professor) from Bratislava. His mother was Agatha Albrecht (Messer), sister of the Slovak computer Alexander Albrecht (1885-1958). Messer entered the United States in 1939. He initially began his schooling at Theil College, Greenville, PA in 1939 moving to Boston University in 1941 where he received a B.A. in 1942. During World War II, Messer worked for Office of War Information, 1942-1943 before entering the U.S. Army in 1943. He became a U.S. citizen in 1944. After the War, he worked as a stockbroker in New York City. He continued his education at the Sorbonne, University of Paris, graduating in 1947. Messer married Remedios Garcia Villa in 1948, receiving his M.A. from Harvard University in 1951. His first director position was at the Roswell Museum of History and Art (today, the Roswell Museum and Art Center) in Roswell, NM, in 1949. In 1952 he returned to New York, joining the American Federation of Arts, first as assistant director, then director of exhibitions in 1953 and director, 1955-1956. He moved to Boston to assume the position of director, Institute of Contemporary Art, in 1957. Messer was appointed director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1961, replacing James Johnson Sweeney after Sween had had differences with the Guggenheim board. Messer served with H. H. Arnason, who had been appointed the month before as Vice President for Art Administration. He appointed the art critic and British gallery director Lawrence Alloway to be a curator in 1962. In 1966 when the Smithsonian Institution invited the Guggenehim to make selections for the United States submissions to the Venice Biennale, Alloway and Messer clashed over the choices so publicly that Smithsonian withdrew the invitation. Messer fired Alloway. He was a member of museum advisory panel of National Endowment for the Arts, 1974 to 1976. Messer was responsible for the acquisition of two important collections for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. After the death Justin K. Thannhauser (1892-1976) in 1976, the museum added his collection, which included Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early modern masterpieces. Nearly the same time, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Guggenheim’s niece) left her collection to her uncle’s public institution, as well as the Venice palazzo that housed it, in 1976. Messer became a trustee and director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy, director, beginning 1980. He was made a Chevalier of French Legion of Honor, France, the same year. Despite these two spectacular acquisitions, Messer’s later years at the Guggenheim were not successful, however. Attendance fell and the museum faced fiancial difficulties. In a bold move, the trustees hired Thomas Krens, the talented director of MassMOCA to replaced Messer in 1986. Messer remained with the musem until 1988 Messer was responsible for the acquisition of two important collections for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The first, the Thannhauser Collection, assembled by Justin K. Thannhauser, included Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early modern masterpieces. The second was the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, as well as the Venice palazzo that housed it, which was secured by Guggenheim New Yok in 1976.
Modern Art: An Introductory Commentary, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1962. The Emergent Decade: Latin American Painters and Painting in the 1960’s, Cornell University Press, 1966. Edvard Munch, Abrams, 1971. (Selector) Vivian Endicott Barnett, Handbook: the Guggenheim Museum Collection, 1900-1980, The Museum (New York, NY), 1980. (Selector and author of introduction) Vivian Endicott Barnett, 100 Works by Modern Masters from the Guggenheim Museum, H. N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1984. (Editor) I Maestri del Guggenheim: Milano, 12 Maggio-26 Luglio 1985, Padiglione d’arte contemporanea, A. Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 1985. (Editor) A Half-Century of European Painting, 1910-1960, from the Guggenheim Museum, New York: Venice, Spring 1986, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, (Milan, Italy), 1986. (Editor) Handbook: The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1986. Fifty Years of Collecting: An Anniversary Selection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (New York, NY), 1987. (With Goetz Adriani) Joseph Beuys: Drawings, Objects, and Prints, translated by Stewart Spencer and Michael O’Donnell, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (Stuttgart, Germany), 1989. Jean Dubuffet, 1901-1985, Hatje (Stuttgart, Germany), 1990. Antoni Tapies: Eine retrospektive, Wienand Verlag (Cologne, Germany), 1993. (Editor) Eduardo Chillida: Eine retrospektive, Wienand (Cologne, Germany), 1993. Nicolas de Stael: Retrospektive, Verlag G. Hatje (Ostfildern, Germany), 1994. Asger Jorn, Hatje (Ostfildern, Germany), 1994. Asger Jorn: Retrospektive, Schirn-Kunsthalle Frankfurt (Frankfurt, Germany), 1994. (With Eduardo Chillida and Antoni Tapies) Photographien Emanuel Raab: Zu den Retrospektiven Eduardo Chillida und Antoni Tapies: Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 1993, foreword by Hellmut Seemann, Cantz (Ostfildern, Germany), 1994. Lucio Fontana: Retrospektive, Hatje (Ostfildern, Germany), 1996. Vasily Kandinsky, H. N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1997. (Author of essay) Karole P. B. Vail, Peggy Guggenheim: A Celebration, Guggenheim Museum (New York, NY), 1998. Between Art and Life: Vom Abstrakten Expressionismus zur Pop Art, Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt, Germany), 1999. Also author of museum catalogues, including Contemporary Painters of Japanese Origin in America, [Boston], 1958; (with Otto Benesel) Egon Schiele: Oeuvre Catalogue of the Paintings, Crown, 1966; Paul Klee at the Guggenheim Museum: Post Scriptum, Center for Advanced Studies, Wesleyan University, 1968; Julius Bissier, 1893-1965: A Retrospective Exhibition, Sterlip Press, 1968; and (with Rosel Golleck and Ingrid Krause) Vasily Kandinsky: 1866-1944, [Munich], 1976; as well as those listed separately above. Contributor of articles to art journals, including Art News, Art in America, Art International, American Scholar, Arts, Studio International, Art Gallery, and XX Siecle.
Knox Sanka. “Guggenheim Picks Museum Director. Thomas Messer, Head of Boston Institute, Named to Art Post Here.” New York Times January 31, 1961, p. 21; Thomas M. Messer Records. Guggenheim Museum, New York Archives [website] http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/library-and-archives/archive-collections/A0007.
Director of the Guggenheim Museum. Messer’s father, Richard Messer (Meszleny) (1881-?), was also an art historian (and professor) from Bratislava. His mother was Agatha Albrecht (Messer), sister of the Slovak computer Alexander Albrecht (1885-1958
Full Name: Merrifield, Mary Philadelphia
Other Names:
Gender: female
Date Born: 15 April 1804
Date Died: 05 January 1889
Place Born: Brompton, Kent, UK
Place Died: Stapleford, Wiltshire, UK
Home Country/ies: United Kingdom
Subject Area(s): Renaissance
Early amateur art historian and algolist, published important translations of art treatises. Mary Philadelphia Watkins was born to Sir Charles Watkins (d. 1808), a barrister, in London. In 1827, Mary Watkins married John Merrifield (1788/9-1877) with whom she had five children. After her husband qualified for his barrister exam, the family was moved to Brighton. During the 1840’s, she studied Venetian artistic restoration methods of Pietro Edwards (1744–1821) using old manuscripts, namely the Volpato Manuscript, and paintings with notable art historians, Luigi Lanzi and Sir Charles Eastlake. In 1844, Merrifield translated the recently discovered Cennino Cennini’s A Treatise on Painting. From this work, the Royal Commission on the Fine Arts commissioned pieces on artistic mediums and methods, granting her the ability to travel to France and Northern Italy to uncover and transcribe documents with her son, Charles Merrifield. This led to the publication of an 1846 collection of documents on the history of frescoes, titled The Art of Fresco Painting, a work still used today. In 1849, she published a two-volume collection of Original Treatises Dating from the XIIth to the XVIIIth Centuries on the Arts of Painting in Oil, Miniature, Mosaic, and on Glass; of Gilding, Dyeing and Preparation of Colours and Artificial Gems. This consisted of translations and reproductions of original documents. Merrifield’s works went through numerous editions and re-edits, including one by A. C. Sewter. In 1854, Merrifield published Dress As a Fine Art, a study of previous fashions through an art and science lens and an attempt to refute negative female stereotypes. In 1857, Merrifield received a £100 pension for her work in art and literature, works that have yet to be superseded today. During this time, she was made an honorary member of the Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London. Additionally, Merrifield became associated with a number of women’s movements during the 1860’s. From there, her interest shifted to the natural sciences, where she was one of the few women working in this field, publishing a work titled A Sketch of the Natural History of Brighton. She became a leading expert in the UK in the field of algology (the study of algae), later having a species of marine algae named after her, rytiphlaea merrifieldiae. While in Brighton, Merrifield worked on a number of exhibits in the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (later relocated to the Booth Museum). Additionally, Merrifield learned both Danish and Swedish to keep up with the most recent work in botanical research. After her husband’s death in 1877, Merrifield moved into her daughter’s home in Cambridge. Until her death in 1889, she wrote many papers for different scientific journals like Nature and Journal of the Linnean Society, while residing in her daughter’s home in Stapleford, Wiltshire. Her plant collections are in the Natural History Museum of London and the Booth Museum of Natural History.
Merrifield’s research was also deeply influenced by Baconian empiricism, as much of her writing was based strictly on observations. Recent scholarship at the Key Archives of Brighton House has been working to transcribe all her correspondence to her husband (around 150 letters) during the 1840’s as she traveled the world to get a clearer picture of the work she had done. In addition to Charles, a mathematician, another son, Frederick, was a world-renowned entomologist.
Contributors: Kerry Rork
Early amateur art historian and algolist, published important translations of art treatises. Mary Philadelphia Watkins was born to Sir Charles Watkins (d. 1808), a barrister, in London. In 1827, Mary Watkins married John Merrifield (1788/9-1877) w
Full Name: Merezhkovsky, Dmitry Sergeyevich
Other Names:
Gender: male
Date Born: 1865
Date Died: 1941
Home Country/ies: Russia
Subject Area(s): biography (general genre) and nineteenth century (dates CE)
Historian who wrote two popular works on artists in the 19th century. Merezhkovsky made special use of the translations of the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci by Jean Paul Richter. Richter had been the first to translate and publicize Leonardo’s writings. Merezhkovsky published his Romance of Leonardo da Vinci in 1902 and it soon appeared in many languages. It was the source for Sigmund Freud’s study of Leonardo. Although Merezhkovsky presented the book as a novel forming part of a world history, it is clear that Merezhkovsky based his book solidly on the data provided by Richter. The Modern Library of the World’s Best Books included it in their selection from the 1920s until the 1950s. The work won praise from Creighton E. Gilbert.
Michael Angelo and other sketches. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1930; Voskresshīe bogi: Leonardo da Vinchi. Saint Peterburg: N. N. Klobukov, 1902, English, The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci. New York/London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1902.
Gilbert, Creighton E. “Introduction.” The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti: Based on Studies in the Archives of the Buonarroti Family at Florence. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002, p. xx.
Historian who wrote two popular works on artists in the 19th century. Merezhkovsky made special use of the translations of the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci by Jean Paul Richter. Richter had been the first to translate and
Full Name: Mercklin, Eugen von
Gender: male
Date Born: 1865
Date Died: 1941
Place Born: Birkenstaedt, Germany
Home Country/ies: Germany
Subject Area(s): Antique, the, Classical, Etruscan (culture or style), and Roman (ancient Italian culture or period)
Specialist in ancient Roman and Etruscan art. Professor of Archaeology at the University of Hamburg, (1930-?).
Antike Figuralkapitelle, 1962.Bieda, in: RM 30, 1915, 161 ff.
Archäologenbildnisse: Porträts und Kurzbiographien von Klassichen Archäologen deutscher Sprache. Reinhard Lullies, ed. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1988: 222-223.
Specialist in ancient Roman and Etruscan art. Professor of Archaeology at the University of Hamburg, (1930-?).
Full Name: Merck, Johann Heinrich
Gender: male
Date Born: 1884
Date Died: 1969
Place Born: Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany
Place Died: Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany
Home Country/ies: Germany
Subject Area(s): Northern Renaissance, painting (visual works), and prints (visual works)
Early Albrecht Dürer historian
KGK 146; Metzler Kunsthistoriker Lexikon: zweihundert Porträts deutschsprachiger Autoren aus vier Jahrhunderten. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1999, pp. 265-7.
Early Albrecht Dürer historian
Full Name: Melot, Michel
Gender: male
Date Born: unknown
Date Died: unknown
Home Country/ies: France
Subject Area(s): art theory and Marxism
French Marxist art historian
KRG, 141 mentioned
French Marxist art historian
Full Name: Mélida y Alinari, José Ramon
Gender: male
Date Born: 1856
Date Died: 1933
Place Born: Madrid, Spain
Place Died: Madrid, Spain
Home Country/ies: Spain
Subject Area(s): ancient, Ancient European, archaeology, Classical, Early Western World, and Spanish (culture or style)
Archaeologist and historian of classical and ancient Spanish art. Alinari came from a prominent Spanish family, receiving most of his education in Madrid. He was hired as an assistant in the archives department of Madrid’s Museo Arqueologico. After being appointed head of the department in 1884, Alinari began cataloguing objects in preparation for the construction of a room in the museum dedicated to the display of ancient Spanish art. As an expert in antiquities, his knowledge and scholarship were in high demand. He led archaeological digs in Soria, and was appointed Director of the Museo Arqueologico, and Chairman of the Department of the Archaeology Department at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. His volume on the Escorial was published in 1915 by the Hispanic Society of America in English. In 1931, the Spanish government named Alinari President of the Council, where he was given the responsibility of overseeing the administration of all museums in Spain. Alinari was also a novelist, publishing El Sortilegio de Karnak in 1880.
Corpus vasorum antiquorum. Espagne. Madrid, Musée Archéologique National. Madrid: Ruiz Hermanos, Librería Gutenberg, 1930-1935; Provincia de Badajoz (1907-1910). Madrid: Ministerio de Instrucción pública y bellas artes, 1925-26; Escorial. Art in Spain, [published] under the Patronage of the Hispanic Society of America. Barcelona: Hijos de J. Thomas, 1923.
The Dictionary of Art
Contributors: LaNitra Michele Walker
Archaeologist and historian of classical and ancient Spanish art. Alinari came from a prominent Spanish family, receiving most of his education in Madrid. He was hired as an assistant in the archives department of Madrid’s Museo Arqueologico. Afte