Wilhelm Lübke was a German art historian, born at Dortmund

Dortmund

Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....

. He studied at Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

 and Berlin

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

; was professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 at the Berlin Bauakademie (1857–61) and professor of the history of art at Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 (1861–66), Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 (1866–85), and Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...

 (1885–93). Previous to his work in art, he gave instruction in vocal and pianoforte music.

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.

Selective biography

Lübke wrote, in a comprehensive 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)
• Medieval Art in Westphalia (1853)
• 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
  Clarence Cook
  Clarence Chatham Cook was a 19th-century American author and art critic.Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Cook graduated from Harvard in 1849 and worked as a teacher. Between 1863 and 1869, Cook wrote a series of articles about American art for The New York Tribune...
  
  , 1878, and reëdited by Russell Sturgis, New York, 1904)
• History of the Renaissance in France (1868)
• History of the Renaissance in Germany (1873)
• Geschichte der Plastik (third edition, 1880; translation by Bunnet under the title History of Sculpture, London, 1878)
• History of German Art (1888)
• Recollections (1891)