Adolph Goldschmidt

Adolph Goldschmidt (15 January 1863 – 5 January 1944) was a Jewish German art historian. He taught at University of Berlin from 1892 to 1903, and University of Halle from 1904 to 1912.

Biography He was born on 15 January 1863 in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. He took his degree in 1889 with the dissertation, Lübecker Malerei und Plastik bis 1530 (English: Lübeck painting and sculpture until 1530), the first detailed analysis of the medieval art of northeast Germany.

His work, Studien zur Geschichte der Sächsischen Skulptur in der Uebergangszeit vom Romanischen zum Gotischen Stil (English: Studies on the history of Saxon sculpture in the transition period from the Romanesque to the Gothic style) (Berlin, 1902) traces the gradual development of German sculpture with reference to the period of its florescence in the thirteenth century. His work, Die Kirchenthür des Heil. Ambrosius in Mailand (English: The church door of salvation. Ambrose in Milan) (1902) for the first time showed the door of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan to be a monument of early Christian art. He also contributed a number of important articles on North-German painting, Saxon sculpture, and early medieval miniature manuscripts to the Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst, and Jahrbuch der Kgl. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen.

Being of Jewish origin, he had to flee Nazi Germany. He died in Basel, Switzerland on 5 January 1944, aged 80.