Guest Post: Sabrina – Why I study art history.

The other day I received an email from Sabrina who is studying Art History at the University of Vienna in Austria. She is writing her thesis on la Pieve in Arezzo and asked if she might use a couple of photos I took of the church.

In return I asked her to send me a couple of lines telling me why she is studying Art History. Her response is lovely.

Here are Sabrina’s reasons for studying
Art History in 2020 and why she interested
in the oldest church in Arezzo!

Hi Melissa, As promised, my paragraphs for your site 🙂 

I’m very happy to write a little guest post for your site. I’m studying art history at the University of Vienna in Austria. I discovered my love for art history by accident. I’ve got a degree from business school, but I always wanted to study art. Unfortunately, I was not accepted at Art school, so I decided to study art history. I became more and more interested in how the artists thought and how they saw the world. I wanted to know everything about the history of paintings and architecture. After my Bachelor’s degree, I decided to turn the pages and try something different- I specialize in architecture.

For example, I am writing my master’s thesis on the northern Italian influence on Austrian churches. In recent years I have also made it my business to visit more and more art historically valuable places. I love being in Rome but also in Venice and at the moment I am traveling all over Austria to see all kinds of Romanesque buildings. I’m literally in love with the romanesque architecture. Especially with the influence of the Magistri Comacini.

Unfortunately, due to the current situation, I am not able to leave the country. The reason why I’m so interested in the Pieve of Arezzo is, that I should have visited it in May this year. I was in a program from the University of Vienna, that was to send us to Italy to visit all the beautiful places around Arezzo.

I decided to research la Pieve because this building includes all the things that I love — beautiful architecture, stunning history, the wooden ceiling, the amazing portals… everything about this building is stunning. I was so sad when I got the message that we are not able to fly to Italy.

So we decided to write a little thesis any way about each Building – and that’s why I was reaching out to Melissa to ask her if she could provide some pictures. 

In the end, I just wanted to say thank you for letting me write a few sentences about my passion. Let me finish this text with my favorite quote:

“Architecture begins where engineering ends“ Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius

Thanks so much Sabrina! Good luck with
your thesis and I wish you all the best
in your art history and architecture studies!

If you are studying art, art history, or are an artist I’d love to hear your stories too!