James S. Ackerman

James Sloss Ackerman (born 1919) is a prominent American architectural historian, a major scholar of Michelangelo's architecture, of Palladio and of Italian Renaissance architectural theory.

He was born in San Francisco At Yale, 1938-41, he came under the influence of Henri Focillon. His graduate work at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (MA 1947, PhD 1952), where he stued with Richrd Krautheimer and Erwin Panofsky. His studies were interrupted by his World War II service in the US Army in Italy, which, however, gave him an opportuniuty to increase his on-site understanding of Italian Renaissance architecture, his specialty. He was assigned to retrieve the archives secured at the Certosa di Pavia. He was a Fellow at the american Academy in Rome (1949-52). He taught at Berkeley and at Harvard as Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts until his retirement in 1990. He was the editor of "The Art Bulletin" (1956-60) and "Annali d'architettura"; Ackerman is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a corresponding member of the British Academy, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the Accademia Olimpica, Vicenza, the Ateneo Veneto, the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and the Royal Academy of Uppsala. He gave the Slade Lectures at Cambridge in 1969-70. He has received five honorary doctorates and is a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and an honorary citizen of Padua.

His rigorous method sets architecture in the broader contexts of cultural and intellectual history. He was awarded the International Balzan Prize 2001 for achievement in architectural history and urbanism and the Paul Kristeller citation 2001 of the Renaissance Society of America for lifetime achievement.

Ackerman conceived and narrated the films "Looking for Renaissance Rome" (1975, with Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt) and "Palladio the Architet and His Influence in America" (1980).

elected publication

Aside from numerous articles, Ackerman has written
*"The Cortile del Belvedere" (1954) This was based on his PhD dissertation on the Renaissance extension of the Vatican Palace.
*"The Architecture of Michelangelo" (2 vols., 1961; paperback version with condensed second volume, 1986) Volume I is a critical overview of the architect's practice and theory,and Vol. II an exhaustive catalogue of Michelangelo's mostly-unfinished buildings, employing architectural drawings and contemporary archival and graphic sources. The work received the Hitchcock Award of the Society of Architectural Historians.
*"Palladio" (series "Architect and Society") Pelican Books (1966; 1977, 2008) An introductory chapter "Palladio and his times" is followed by chapters discussing the examples of Palladio's villas, civic and domestic architecture, ecclesiastical architecture, and principles of his design and practice.
*"Palladio's Villas" (1967)
*"The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses " (1990), an overview of the country house from Roman times to le Corbusier and Wright.
*"James Ackerman Art Historian", 1992, book length interview for the Getty Foundation and U.C.L.A.
*"Distance Points: Studies in Theory and Renaissance Art and Architecture" MIT Press (1991) Seven essays divided between the theory of criticism and the relation of architecture and science in the Renaissance, with individual studies of Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo.
*"Origins, Imitation, Conventions: Representation in the Visual Arts" MIT Press (2002) Twelve essays.

External links

* [http://eng.archinform.net/arch/4132.htm?scrwdt=1280 Archinform: James S. Ackerman]
* [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/index.cfm/fuseaction/OralHistories.ViewOralHistory/CollectionID/12233 Archives of American Art - James S. Ackerman interview, 2 January 1991]
* [http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000000022,00.html Penguin Books author profile: James S. Ackerman]
* [http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/ackermanj.htm "Dictionary of Art Historians": James S. Ackerman]
* [http://sites.google.com/site/jamessackerman/Home James Sloss Ackerman - website]