Alois Riegl and his lecture notes. A reconsideration of his concept of ‘Baroque’

The present article aims to draw attention to a specific and hitherto unaddressed aspect of Alois Riegl’s work, namely a reconsideration of his idea of ‘Baroque’ in the light of his unpublished manuscripts. Selected parts of Riegl’s lecture notes, which he prepared for his teaching at the University of Vienna between 1894‒1902, were published by Arthur Burda and Max Dvořák in 1908, under the title "Die Entstehung der Barockkunst in Rom". From an analysis of the manuscripts in its entirely emerges a more complex idea of ‘Baroque’ as a stylistic phenomenon, the range of which is not limited to its first development or its ‘origins’ ("Entstehung" in German) in Rome. Rather, this phenomenon extends also to its assimilation and reinterpretation from both the rest of Italy and European territories beyond the Alps, such as Austria, Germany and Bohemia, up until the rise of Neoclassicism.