Professor Fan Baiding is the dean of the Advanced School of Art and Humanities, China Academy of Art. His research covers issues related to art historiography, art theory and iconographic tradition.

‘One of the greatest challenges of art has always been its dual nature: simultaneously historical product and (contemporary) aesthetic phenomenon. This tension – between the historical study of individual artworks and the philosophical inquiry into the essence and developmental laws of art as a whole – emerged as a central concern of German-speaking art history around 1900. Under the term ‘Kunstwissenschaft’, scholars sought to determine whether and how art history could constitute a ‘genuine’, independent science by addressing these questions. Fan Baiding offers a brilliant analysis of these dazzling debates, tracing them from Alois Riegl and Julius von Schlosser to Aby Warburg and Erwin Panofsky.’ Professor Ulrich Pfisterer, Director of the Central Institute of Art History, Munich