Emma Brunner-Traut

Emma Brunner-Traut (Dec. 25, 1911, Frankfurt am Main - 18 Jan 2008, Tübingen) was a German Egyptologist, known for popularizing ancient Egyptian folk literature, for editing Heinrich Schäfer's Principles of Egyptian Art, and above all for her art historical concept of "aspective" (Aspektive). Aspective is the concept that Brunner-Traut developed to distinguish the characteristic classical Egyptian art style -- flat, non-dimensional -- from and in contrast to the "perspective" style of classical Greco-Roman and Renaissance style.

Biography Emma Traut was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1911. An aspiring classical pianist, her interests turned toward Egyptology, and she published a dissertation on ancient Egyptian dance in 1937. She married fellow Egyptologist Hellmut Brunner, doing fieldwork in Egypt in 1937–1938, and then took a position at the University of Tübingen, where she was closely related to its Egyptological collection.

Traut-Brunner published her influential work on "Aspektive" initially in 1963 in Heinreich Schäfer's Principles of Egyptian Art.