The German and the international CVMA is sorry to announce the death of Prof. Dr. Frank Martin. Our colleague died after a serious illness, aged only 52 years, on 30 June 2014.
Frank Martin was born on 10 December 1961 in Stuttgart. He studied history of art, Classical archaeology, German philology, and Latin philology at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg from 1982 to 1989. After his PhD thesis of 1992 on the stained-glass windows in the choir of the upper basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, which he completed summa cum laude, Frank Martin continued his research work as a fellow of various institutions, namely the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, the Warburg Institute in London, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich. This included studies on stained glass, painting and sculpture of the Middle Ages and of the modern era, focusing on Italy and Germany. He dealt with the stained-glass work of Duccio in Siena Cathedral, with Ghirlandaio and Cimabue, with the Aschaffenburg panel and the so-called Zackenstil of the 13th century – and with the same passion with Roman Baroque sculpture, particularly with the sculptor Camillo Rusconi (1658–1728). In April 2002, the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena bestowed upon him the venia docendi as associate professor for art history, based on his habilitation thesis entitled Camillo Rusconi: Ein Catalogue Raisonné. From March 2012, he taught as honorary professor at the Freie Universität in Berlin.
Since the beginning of 2001, Frank Martin was the head of the CVMA Potsdam, one of the two German CVMA centres. From that point on, he devoted himself intensively to researching the medieval stained glass in the states of eastern Germany. Under his leadership, a range of publications was produced, for example the CVMA volumes on Halberstadt Cathedral (2003); on northern Sachsen-Anhalt (2007, 2009, 2013); and on Berlin and Brandenburg (2010). A further publication focussed on the stained glass returned to the Marienkirche in Frankfurt an der Oder (2008). In a special project, he was able to achieve a complete inventory of all stained glass of the 19th and the early 20th centuries in eastern Germany (published in five volumes between 2001 and 2004). He was not only the editor of all these publications, but was himself the author of numerous contributions to CVMA volumes and other important publications on stained glass of the Middle Ages and of the 19th and early 20th centuries. From 2012, he served as secretary for the German CVMA.
With Frank Martin, the CVMA Potsdam has lost an innovative head, the German and international CVMA committee a high-achieving colleague, and history of art a brilliant author and editor.
Prof. Dr. Achim Hubel (Project Director) and the CVMA Potsdam team
A full list of the German CVMA volumes may be found on the CVMA (GB) website.