WULFF, OSKAR. - Archaeologist, b. June 6, 1864 in St. Petersburg to a family of German and Protestant origin, d. in Berlin on Jan. 23, 1946.
From 1876 to 1882 he attended the Lyceum of Reval and completed his studies in classical philology, archaeology and art history at the Universities of Dorpat (1882-86), Berlin (1888-89) and Leipzig (1892-94). In 1895 he entered the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople (1895-98), where he began his profound studies of Byzantine art under Uspenskij, also making journeys in Asia Minor, to Mount Athos and in Greece. In 1895 he became an inspector at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, in 1902 a Privatdozent at the University of Berlin, where he prepared his catalogue of the Early Christian, Byzantine and medieval Italian collection (1909 and 1911). He was then secretary at the German Institute in Florence. He returned to Berlin in 1905 as a professor at the University (1917); he was then promoted to director of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum until 1926, the year in which he retired, remaining a professor at the University. O. W. was the first in Germany to devote himself to the study of Byzantine art and with his manual (I. Die altchristliche Kunst, 1913-14 and II. Die byzantinische Kunst, 1915) he spread the study of this science. His principal publications were: Chernobim, Throne und Seraphim (diss., Altenburg 1894); Spätantike und koptische Stoffe (in collaboration with W. F. Volbach, Berlin 1926); Denkmäler der Ikonenmalerei in kunstgeschichtlicher Folge (Dresden 1925); Giovanni d'Antonio di Banco (in Jahrb. der kgl. preuss. K.-Samml., 1913); Donatello (Leipzig 1922); Die neureussische Kunst (Augsburg 1932); Grundlinien und kritische Erörterungen zur Principienlehre der bildenden Kunst (Stuttgart 1917); Die Kunst des Kindes (ibid. 1927).
Bibliography
Volfango Federico Volbach