Art Historians in the Cinema: Mid-Century Films on Art by Paul Haesaerts and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti

The 1940s and 1950s marked the golden age of the art documentary, characterized by the production of numerous award-winning films extensively discussed in leading art and film journals. Before the advent of television, filmmakers in Belgium and Italy, in particular, advanced the art documentary as a highly experimental form, blending cinematic innovation with artistic depth. Art historians played a crucial role in this movement, with distinguished figures showing significant interest and occasionally participating in the production of these films. However, these contributions are often overlooked in art historical scholarship. This dissertation examines this underexplored intersection of film and visual arts through the mid-century art films of Belgian art historian Paul Haesaerts and Italian art historian Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti. Unlike their colleagues, Haesaerts and Ragghianti took full responsibility for their films’ construction, transcending the traditional role of expert or voice-over author. In 1948, they introduced the concepts of cinéma critique and critofilm, respectively, pioneering innovative forms of art criticism through the logic of cinematic language rather than words. Their landmark films, including Haesaerts’s Rubens (with Henri Storck, 1948), Visite à Picasso (1950), and De Renoir à Picasso (1950), as well as Ragghianti’s La Deposizione di Raffaello (1948), Il Cenacolo di Andrea del Castagno (1954), and Michelangiolo (1964), blend art historical perspectives with formal analyses. Utilizing techniques such as dynamic camera movements, split screens, dissolves, animation, light effects, rhythmic editing, original soundtracks, and depictions of the creative process, these films effectively bridge the gap between art history and cinema. Based on extensive archival research, theoretical interpretations, formal analysis of films, and investigations into art and film history and methodology, this dissertation presents a comparative analysis of Haesaerts and Ragghianti’s art documentaries with two primary objectives. Firstly, it elucidates how Haesaerts’s cinéma critique and Ragghianti’s critofilm fit within the evolution of the experimental art documentary style through an in-depth analysis of their key films and their reception by critics such as André Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer. Secondly, it demonstrates how Haesaerts and Ragghianti developed new models of art historical scholarship using a camera, exploring their art theories and examining influences from Heinrich Wölfflin, André Malraux, Matteo Marangoni, and Benedetto Croce, among others. Additionally, this dissertation situates their work within a broader cultural and social context, addressing the postwar reconstruction and promotion of national cultural heritage, the popularization of fine arts, the rise of the illustrated art book, the mediatization and mythologization of modern artists, and the institutionalization of the film d’art movement. Finally, it details how, by contrasting movement with stillness and cinematic space with pictorial surface, these art historians transformed the art documentary into a highly self-reflexive form, creating films that serve as artworks in their own right.