Why study Art History
and why the Middle Ages fascinate me?
Art History is a discipline
which deals with something that overwhelms us.
That is images. Images are all around us.
If you want to understand our world
you have to understand images.
An image – be it a picture on the wall
but more probably a media image
an advertisement
a motion picture (like TV, film, and internet)
forms a part of our everyday reality.
An Art Historian is a person
who is trained to understand such images
to explain them
and to not to be manipulated by them.
But why the Middle Ages? Why the past?
The distance is a key to have a macroscopic view of our reality
so that we understand the world in a different way.
And there is – of course – the dimension of beauty.
To study the Middle Ages is simply beautiful
because the objects we study are breath-taking.
And finally
there is the aspect which concerns all humanities and sciences:
The act of searching.
The desire, which is intrinsic to the humans
is the aim in itself.
And so, to study Art History and to study the Middle Ages it is also the way
to become a different person.
