Franz Kugler (1800-1858), was appointed to a Chair in Berlin in 1834.
Kugler, Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei seit Constantin dem Grossen, and the later Kugler, Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, both draw on a detailed knowledge of wide range of works, historically and geographically, and attempt to locate them in a social, economic and cultural context.
A translation of Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei was first published in England by John Murray. The first part appeared in 1842 as Kugler, F., Handbook of the History of Painting, Part One, The Italian Schools, translated by 'A Lady' (i.e. Lady Eastlake), and edited with notes by C.L. Eastlake. The second part was published by John Murray in 1846 as Kugler, F., Handbook of Painting: German, Flemish and Dutch Schools, translated by 'A Lady', edited with notes by Sir Edmund Head. Jacob Burckhardt, Kugler's friend and pupil, worked on the revision of the work on the Italian Schools, and his revisions are incorporated from the second and third English editions of 1847 and 1855.
Haskell refers to the influence of Kugler on the development of Burckhardt's thinking:
His work on [Kugler's] books had not only given Burckhardt a breadth of historical understanding which makes Ruskin appear provincial by comparison, but had also provided him with a vast amount of knowledge on the basis of which he could assess the evidence provided by the visual arts for an understanding of history. ( Haskell, History and its Images, p. 332)
Ruskin calls the volume on Italian painting Murray's Handbook of Painting in Italy. Cook and Wedderburn at Works, 4.xlvi refer to Kugler's handbook as 'then and for many years to come, the recognised authority of such matters', though it is not clear that they think the 'recognition' is justified. A note at Works, 4.200 refers to Kugler's judgements of paintings by Fra Angelico as 'executed with the greatest delicacy', and in a state of good preservation. Ruskin in his 1845 Notebook disagrees, and suggests that restorers might have been at work. At Works, 11.435, Ruskin complains that Kugler 'ignorantly and ridiculously' calls the San Trovaso Last Supper by Tintoretto characteristic of the artist (on this see Kugler, ed. Eastlake, revised by Burckhardt, on Tintoretto). At Works, 36.51 Kugler is a 'wrong headed German' in what he says of the Brancacci Chapel frescoes.
The conclusion is perhaps that, unlike Kugler, Ruskin was not an Art Historian (and certainly not interested in Kunstgeschichte), but an art critic working within a clear normative framework.