Joseph Connors
Encyclopedia
Joseph James Connors is an American art historian specializing in Italian architecture of the Renaissance and Baroque.
and Boston College
(A.B. 1966). While studying at Clare College, Cambridge on a Marshall Scholarship
in 1966-68 he discovered art history in lectures by Nikolaus Pevsner
. After a period teaching Greek and Latin at the Boston Latin School
, Connors studied with Ernst Kitzinger
and James Ackerman
in the Department of Fine Arts of Harvard University
(Ph.D. 1978). He has taught at the University of Chicago (1975–80) and Columbia University
(1980–2001), where he served as chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology in 1999-2001 and received the President’s Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2001.
Connors’ research centers on the architecture of seventeenth-century Rome and in particular on the genial, enigmatic figure of Francesco Borromini
(1599–1667). He has also written on town planning in Rome from the late Renaissance to the eighteenth century, pioneering a view of urban change generated around large and long-lived institutions.
Connors served as director of the American Academy in Rome
in 1988-92 and of Villa I Tatti
, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, from 2002 to 2010. To date he is the only person to have directed both of the major American research institutes in Italy. Since 2002 he has been a member of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard, and will return to teaching in Harvard College in 2011.
He has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, CASVA at the National Gallery of Art, the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, All Souls College Oxford, and the Clark Art Institute
, and he was Slade Professor at Oxford in 1999. He was elected to the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome in 1993, and to the American Philosophical Society
in Philadelphia in 2006.
Specchio di Roma barocca, with Louise Rice, Rome: Edizioni dell'Elefante, 1991 (Premio Letterario Rebecchini, 1992: reprint 1996).
Critical edition of Francesco Borromini, Opus Architectonicum, Milan: Il Polifilo, Trattati di architectura, VII.2, 1998.
Alleanze e inimicizie. L’urbanistica di Roma barocca, Rome: Laterza, 2005.
Piranesi and the Campus Martius: The Missing Corso. Topography and Archeology in Eighteenth-century Rome, Rome: Unione Internazionale degli Istituti di Archeologia Storia e Storia dell’Arte in Roma, 2010.
(ed.), Toward a Festschrift: Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2010.
Career
A New Yorker by birth, Connors was educated in classical languages at Regis High SchoolRegis High School (New York City)
Regis High School is a private Jesuit university-preparatory school for academically gifted Roman Catholic young men located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Annual class enrollment is limited to approximately 135 male students from the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut tri-state area...
and Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
(A.B. 1966). While studying at Clare College, Cambridge on a Marshall Scholarship
Marshall Scholarship
The Marshall Scholarship, a postgraduate scholarships available to Americans, was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when the Marshall Aid Commemoration Act was passed in 1953. The scholarships serve as a living gift to the United States of America in recognition of the post-World War...
in 1966-68 he discovered art history in lectures by Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
. After a period teaching Greek and Latin at the Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States....
, Connors studied with Ernst Kitzinger
Ernst Kitzinger
Ernst Kitzinger was a German-American historian of late antique, early medieval, and Byzantine art.-Biography:...
and James Ackerman
James S. Ackerman
James Sloss Ackerman is a prominent American architectural historian, a major scholar of Michelangelo's architecture, of Palladio and of Italian Renaissance architectural theory.-Biography:...
in the Department of Fine Arts of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
(Ph.D. 1978). He has taught at the University of Chicago (1975–80) and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(1980–2001), where he served as chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology in 1999-2001 and received the President’s Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2001.
Connors’ research centers on the architecture of seventeenth-century Rome and in particular on the genial, enigmatic figure of Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...
(1599–1667). He has also written on town planning in Rome from the late Renaissance to the eighteenth century, pioneering a view of urban change generated around large and long-lived institutions.
Connors served as director of the American Academy in Rome
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome.- History :In 1893, a group of American architects, painters and sculptors met regularly while planning the fine arts section of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
in 1988-92 and of Villa I Tatti
Villa I Tatti
Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a research institute in Florence, Italy.-History:Villa I Tatti is located on an estate of olive groves, vineyards and gardens on the border of Florence and Fiesole...
, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, from 2002 to 2010. To date he is the only person to have directed both of the major American research institutes in Italy. Since 2002 he has been a member of the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard, and will return to teaching in Harvard College in 2011.
He has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, CASVA at the National Gallery of Art, the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, All Souls College Oxford, and the Clark Art Institute
Clark Art Institute
The Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, usually referred to simply as "The Clark", is an art museum with a large and varied collection located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States...
, and he was Slade Professor at Oxford in 1999. He was elected to the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome in 1993, and to the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
in Philadelphia in 2006.
Family
Connors married Françoise Gabrielle Germaine Moison in 1969 in Gagny, France; they have two children, Geneviève Connors (b. 1975) and Thomas Connors (b. 1978).Selected publications
Borromini and the Roman Oratory: Style and Society, New York and Cambridge MA: The Architectural History Foundation with MIT Press, 1980 (Richard Krautheimer Medal, 1984; Italian translation: Einaudi, 1989).Specchio di Roma barocca, with Louise Rice, Rome: Edizioni dell'Elefante, 1991 (Premio Letterario Rebecchini, 1992: reprint 1996).
Critical edition of Francesco Borromini, Opus Architectonicum, Milan: Il Polifilo, Trattati di architectura, VII.2, 1998.
Alleanze e inimicizie. L’urbanistica di Roma barocca, Rome: Laterza, 2005.
Piranesi and the Campus Martius: The Missing Corso. Topography and Archeology in Eighteenth-century Rome, Rome: Unione Internazionale degli Istituti di Archeologia Storia e Storia dell’Arte in Roma, 2010.
Further reading
Machtelt Israëls and Louis A. WaldmanLouis A. Waldman
Louis Alexander Waldman is an American art historian specializing in the Italian Renaissance.-Career:Born near Detroit, Louis A. Waldman was educated at Hunter College and subsequently, Waldman studied with Sir John Pope-Hennessy and Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt at the Institute of Fine Arts of...
(ed.), Toward a Festschrift: Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2010.