Dr. Hana Gründler
Research Group Leader (W2)
Hana Gründler is Head of the permanent and independent Research Group “Ethico-Aesthetics of the Visual” since 2017. She studied art history and philosophy at the Università Statale degli Studi in Milan and at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main, where she finished her PhD in 2016. Her research areas include the intersections of philosophy and art (history), extending from the early modern period to the present time, with a special focus on the relationship between art, visuality, ethics, and politics. Hana Gründler taught art historical and philosophical seminars in many international art academies and universities (i.e., Art Academy in Düsseldorf and IEKG, University of Heidelberg) and was a Visiting Professor for “Late Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy” at the Freie Universität Berlin (Fall 2018-2019), for “Early Modern Art and Image History” at Humboldt-University, Berlin (Fall 2019-2020), and for “Modern Art History” at the University of Vienna (Spring 2022). In April 2025 she was a Guest Professor at the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici at the University of Urbino, with a focus on early modern philosophy. She has received several prizes and fellowships, including an appointment as Senior Fellow at the DFG Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe “Imaginarien der Kraft” at the University of Hamburg in Fall 2022-2023.
Hana Gründler is a member of the editorial team of the “Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte” (since February 2020) and a member of the advisory board of the “Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie” (since September 2024). Together with the Stuttgart Research Center for Text Studies, her research group is co-editing the “Zeitsprünge. Studies in Early Modern History, Culture and Science“ (since January 2025). Among Hana Gründler’s many publications are the monograph Die Dunkelheit der Episteme. Zur Kunst des aufmerksamen Sehens (Berlin 2019), the special issue of the “kritische berichte” Phenomenon Colour: Aesthetics – Epistemology – Politics (Munich 2022, with Franziska Lampe and Katharine Stahlbuhk), the special issue of the “Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte” Eastern Underground (Munich 2024, with Jörg Völlnagel) as well as articles on the ethical dimension of art and visibility. She is also a co-editor of the Edition Giorgio Vasari and editor of Leon Battista Alberti’s moral dialogue On the Tranquility of the Soul (Berlin 2022). Currently, Hana Gründler is finalising a book manuscript entitled Aesthetics of Freedom. Unofficial Visual Culture and Philosophy in the ČSSR. She has also translated texts both from early modern Italian as well as from Czech into German. One of her most recent translations was Václav Havel’s 1984 essay Sechs Notizen zur Kultur, which was published in the “Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie” in Summer 2024.
- Aesthetic and epistemic practices under totalitarian regimes
- Central and Eastern European art, philosophy and visual culture after 1945
- Early modern art theory and aesthetics (i.e. Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci)
- Ethics of vision
- Political image theory (with a special focus on body politics and political emotions)
- Relationship between AI, aesthetics and ethics
- Theories and artistic practices of attentiveness and (self-)care from the early modern period to the present
Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
PUBLIKATIONEN Hana Gründler 2022 – 2025
Eastern Underground, ed. by Hana Gründler and Jörg Völlnagel, Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 21/2 (2024)
Zum Thema. Eastern Underground, in: Eastern Underground, ed. by Hana Gründler and Jörg Völlnagel, Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 21, 2 (2024), p. 4 (with Jörg Völlnagel)
Nichtstun in der ČSSR, in: Eastern Underground, ed. by Hana Gründler and Jörg Völlnagel, Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 21/2 (2024), pp. 41–54
Die Kunst des unideologischen Denkens. Editorische Anmerkung zu Václav Havels „Sechs Notizen zur Kultur“, in: Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie 18, 1 (2024), pp. 193–200
Václav Havel: Sechs Notizen zur Kultur, transl. by Hana Gründler, in: Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie, 18, 1 (2024), pp. 179–192
(In-)Visible Actions – Disruptive Practices. Art and Philosophy in the ČSSR, in: Journal for Social and Political Philosophy 1 (2024), 67–84
Das Leben des Sogliani, in: Giorgio Vasari. Das Leben des Pordenone, Marcantonio Raimondi, Leone Leoni, Francesco Primaticcio und weiterer Künstler der Terza Parte, Berlin 2024. (= Edition Giorgio Vasari), epub.
Das Leben des Morto da Feltre und Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini, in: Giorgio Vasari. Das Leben des Pordenone, Marcantonio Raimondi, Leone Leoni, Francesco Primaticcio und weiterer Künstler der Terza Parte, Berlin 2024. (= Edition Giorgio Vasari), epub.
Das Leben des Ridolfo, David und Benedetto Ghirlandaio, in: Giorgio Vasari. Das Leben des Pordenone, Marcantonio Raimondi, Leone Leoni, Francesco Primaticcio und weiterer Künstler der Terza Parte, Berlin 2024. (= Edition Giorgio Vasari), epub.
Die kybernetische Großmutter, in: Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte 17, 2 (2023), pp. 101–110
“Grey is not Grey”. Some Considerations on an Ethics of Attentiveness, in: Grey on Grey. On the Threshold of Philosophy and Art, ed. by Kamini Vellodi and Aaron Vinegar, Edinburgh 2023, pp. 249–290
Konzepte der Zeichnung. Von Vasaris ‚disegno’ zu Mel Bochners ‚Working Drawings‘, in: Grundlegende Konzepte der Renaissance, ed. by Barbara Stoltz, Bern 2023, pp. 79–117
“La visione della bellezza è possibile soltanto a una contemplazione illimitata”. I viaggi fiorentini di Bertrand Russell, in: Camere con vista. Aby Warburg, Firenze e il laboratorio delle immagini, ed. by Marzia Faietti et al., Florence 2023, pp. 53–55
Perspektivfragen. Über Transformationen des Sehens und des Denkens, in: Neues Denken. Wo kommt es her? Wo will es hin?, special issue Die politische Meinung 68 (2023), pp. 48–59
Vom Exzess zur Wohltemperiertheit? Überlegungen zu De pictura und Della tranquillità dell’animo, in: Leon Battista Alberti. De pictura (lat.). Kunsttheorie, Rheotrik, Narrative, ed. by Hartmut Wulfram and Gregor Schöffberger, Wien 2023, pp. 149–166
Leon Battista Alberti: Über die Seelenruhe oder vom Vermeiden des Leidens in drei Büchern, ed. by Hana Gründler with Katharine Stahlbuhk and Giulia Baldelli, Berlin 2022 (2nd edition 2023)
Vom Gleichgewicht der Seele in widrigen Zeiten. Einleitung, in: Leon Battista Alberti: Über die Seelenruhe oder vom Vermeiden des Leidens in drei Büchern, ed. by Hana Gründler with Katharine Stahlbuhk and Giulia Baldelli, Berlin 2022 (2nd edition 2023), pp. 7–28
Viaggio nel Nord Italia. Studi di cultura visiva in onore di Alessandro Nova, ed. by Dario Donetti, Hana Gründler and Mandy Richter, Florence 2022
Motivi di un viaggio, in: Viaggio nel Nord Italia. Studi di cultura visiva in onore di Alessandro Nova, ed. by Dario Donetti, Hana Gründler and Mandy Richter, Florence 2022, pp. 8–11 (with Dario Donetti and Mandy Richter)
Drei Stunden in Mailand. Jan Vladislav zwischen italienischer Renaissance und Prager Untergrund, in: Viaggio nel Nord Italia. Studi di cultura visiva in onore di Alessandro Nova, ed. by Dario Donetti, Hana Gründler and Mandy Richter, Florence 2022, pp. 38–43
Practices of Imagination, ed. by Hana Gründler, Giulia Baldelli and Jakob Moser, special issue Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit, 26/3,4 (2022)
Practices of Imagination. An Introduction, in: Practices of Imagination, ed. by Hana Gründler, Giulia Baldelli and Jakob Moser, special issue Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit 26, 3,4 (2022), pp. 261–293 (with Jakob Moser)
Politics of Imagination? ‘Leonardo’ in Czech Art and Literature after 1945, in: Practices of Imagination, ed. by Hana Gründler, Giulia Baldelli and Jakob Moser, special issue Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit 26, 3,4 (2022), pp. 433–463
Phenomenon 'Colour': Aesthetics – Epistemology – Politics, ed. by Hana Gründler, Franziska Lampe and Katharine Stahlbuhk, special issue kritische berichte 1 (2022)
Introduction to Phenomenon ‘Colour’: Aesthetics – Epistemology – Politics (with Franziska Lampe and Katharine Stahlbuhk), thematic Issue kritische berichte 1.2022, pp. 2–11
Agón and the Undepictable. Representations of Artists‘ Contests in Classical Antiquity and the Early Modern Era, in: Idols and Rivals, ed. by Gudrun Swoboda (Exhib.-cat. Vienna), Vienna 2022, pp. 33–37.
Moral des Blicks oder Ethiken des Sehens?, in: Ethische Wertschöpfung. Moralische Kriterien in der zeitgenössischen Kunst und Kritik, ed. by Magdalena Nieslony, 21: Inquiries Into Art, History, and the Visual 3, 2 (2022), pp. 311–341
‚Il mancamento di giudizio‘: Zum Zusammenspiel von Imagination und Urteil in Kunsttheorie und Philosophie des Quattro- und Cinquecento“, in: Die Kunst des Urteils in und über Literatur und Kunst, ed. by Peter Kuon, Heidelberg 2022, pp. 269-289