Charles de Tolnay, bornKároly von Tolnai (May 27, 1899 – January 17, 1981), was a Hungarian art historian and an expert onMichelangelo. According toErwin Panofsky, he was "one of the most brilliant art historians" of his time.[1][2][3]
De Tolnay was born inBudapest. He was the son of Arnold von Tolnai, an official of the Hungarian administration. In 1918, he began studying art history and archaeology asKarl Tolnai in Germany, first at theUniversity of Berlin (underAdolph Goldschmidt), then at theUniversity of Frankfurt (under Rudolf Kautzsch).[2]
During these early years he was also a keen traveller. Between 1921 and 1922 he made his first trip to Belgium, visiting Brussels, Antwerp, Leuven, Ghent, Bruges, and Liege. In 1923 he went to Paris, Occitania, Spain, Lisbon, Turin, Milan and Venice. In 1924 he made a hundred-day journey to Italy, visiting Florence and Rome, where he was struck by the art of Michelangelo.[2][1]
He continued studying art history at theUniversity of Vienna (underJulius von Schlosser andMax Dvořák[2]), where he wrote a Ph.D. thesis onHieronymus Bosch (1925).[4]
In 1928 he became lecturer at theUniversity of Hamburg and a friend of the youngErwin Panofsky. There Tolnay wrote his Habilitationsschrift on Michelangelo's late architecture (1929). He then moved to Rome, where he did much research at theBibliotheca Hertziana. Between 1934 and 1939, he taught art history at theSorbonne, Paris, where he changed his name to Charles de Tolnay. In 1939, he immigrated to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1945, working at theInstitute for Advanced Study,Princeton, New Jersey, for some years. According to Ernest H. Wilkins, "Of the many specialists resident at the Institute for Advanced Study, probably none is a more tireless investigator than Charles de Tolnay, Hungarian-born authority on Renaissance art."[5] In 1953, Tolnay was appointed professor of art history atColumbia University, where he retired in 1965. In the same year, he became Director of theCasa Buonarroti inFlorence, which he helped to reorganize.[2][6]
He wrote fundamental studies onFlemish painting, in particular Bosch,Jan van Eyck and theMaster of Flémalle,Hugo van der Goes andPeter Paul Rubens, but also on the painting ofRembrandt andJan Vermeer. From 1943 on, his attention focused on Michelangelo, which resulted in a 5-volume study on his work, which has been called "the biggest, most learned study of Michelangelo in our generation".[7] Also important are his writings on the court ofMatthias Corvinus, King of Hungary and Croatia, and the works ofBicci di Lorenzo,Masaccio,Filippo Lippi,Domenico Ghirlandaio,Raphael,Leonardo da Vinci,Tintoretto,Pontormo,Diego Velázquez,Nicolas Poussin,Antoine Watteau,Eugène Delacroix,Paul Cézanne, and others.[1]
Tolnay died on January 17, 1981, inFlorence.
According to Erwin Panofsky, Tolnay "excels by a rare combination of constructive scientific imagination and thorough connoisseurship ... Thanks to his extraordinary energy, Dr. v. Tolnay has greatly promoted our knowledge of Bosch, Breughel, and most particularly Michelangelo."[1]
According toErnest Manheim, "everybody liked Tolnay because he had very interesting opinions. He was looking for a connection between art history, art analysis, and sociology".[8]
