[Franz Theodor]. German art-critic, born at Stettin, Germany, on the 19th of January 1808; he devoted himself early to the study of the history of art, and spent several years in Italy collecting information for his great work, Handbook of the History of Painting from the Age of Constantine to the Present Time, two volumes, published in 1837 and immediately translated into the leading European languages. In 1833 he had been appointed professor in the fine arts at the Berlin University. No less valuable and popular are his Handbook to the History of Art (2 vols., 1841–42), and his Description of the Art Treasures in Berlin and Potsdam. His novels and his History of Frederick the Great are not considered up to the average of his other works. He began (with Lübke) a History of Architecture. He died in Berlin, March 18, 1858.
