John Pope-Hennessy
Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy (born December 13, 1913 in London , † October 31, 1994 in Florence ) was a British art historian and director of the British Museum in London.
family
Pope-Hennessy came from a wealthy Irish Catholic family in Belgravia in central London. His parents were Major General Richard Pope-Hennessy (1875-1942) and the translator Una Pope-Hennessy (1875-1949), who mostly published under her maiden name Una Birch. Her father was the lieutenant governor of Ceylon Arthur Birch (1837-1914). Pope-Hennessy's younger brother was the writer James Pope-Hennessy , who was murdered in London in 1974.
Life
Pope-Hennessy began his art history studies at Oxford University , where he met the well-known art historian Kenneth Clark , who became his mentor. On numerous trips he visited the major art collections in Europe. From 1967 to 1973 he was director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 1971 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir"). He was appointed director of the British Museum in 1974, but left it in 1976 to move to Italy. From 1977 Pope-Hennessy also worked in New York City as head ("Consultative Chairman") of the department for European painting of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and took over a professorship at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University . In 1955 he was elected a member of the British Academy . Since 1974 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society .
Between 1955 and 1963 Pope-Hennessy published his important three-volume work “Introduction to Italian Sculpture”, in which he summarized his research on the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Another major work followed in 1993 was a monograph on Donatello .
Pope-Hennessy lived in the Palazzo Canigiani in Florence from 1985 until his death and was buried in the Cimitero Evangelico agli Allori there.
Publications (selection)
- A Lecture on Nicholas Hilliard . London: Home and Van Thal 1949.
- Introduction to Italian Sculpture. Three volumes. London: Phaidon 1955-1963.
- Essays on Italian Sculpture. London: Phaidon 1968. ISBN 978-0-71481327-1
- Raphael. The Wrightsman Lectures . London: Harper & Row 1979. ISBN 978-0-06430093-3
- Donatello. Sculptor. London: Phaidon 1993. ISBN 978-1-55859645-0
- German edition: Donatello . With recordings by Liberto Perugi and comments on the work by Giovanna Ragionieri. Translated from the Italian by Maria Keller. Berlin: Propylaen-Verl. 1986. ISBN 978-3-54905585-4
Web links
- Bavarian Academy of Sciences - Obituary John Pope-Hennessy by Willibald Sauerländer
- The Florentine - John Pope-Hennessy from January 30, 2014 (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed July 19, 2020 .
- ^ Member History: Sir John Pope-Hennessy. American Philosophical Society, accessed January 24, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pope-Hennessy, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pope-Hennessy, Sir John Wyndham (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British art historian and director of the British Museum in London |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 13, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 31, 1994 |
| Place of death | Florence |