Burckhardt, Jacob

Burckhardt, Jacob (Christopher)

(born May 25, 1818, Basel, Switz.—died Aug. 8, 1897, Basel) Swiss historian of art and culture. After abandoning his study of theology, Burckhardt studied art history, then a new field, at the University of Berlin (1839–43). As he matured he became a cultural conservative, alienated from the contemporary world and preoccupied with reclaiming the past. From 1843 he taught primarily at the University of Basel; from 1886 until his retirement in 1893 he taught art history exclusively. He is famous for The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), which examines daily life in the Renaissance in terms of such phenomena as the development of individuality and the modern sense of humour; it became a model for cultural historians. He died while working on a four-volume survey of Greek civilization.