Kenneth John Conant

Kenneth John Conant (1894–1984) was an American architectural historian specializing in medieval architecture. He is known for his studies of the Abbey Church of Cluny.

Kenneth John Conant
Born28 June 1894 
Neenah 
Died3 March 1984  (aged 89)
Alma mater
Employer
Awards

Life

Conant was born in Neenah, Wisconsin, and studied at Harvard University from 1911-1915, majoring in fine arts.[1] He considered himself the academic heir of Herbert Langford Warren, one of his Harvard teachers, and through him of the New York Architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the art historian Charles Eliot Norton, and John Ruskin.[2]:xxv After studying in Europe and service in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, he returned to graduate study at Harvard. His dissertation on the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was published as a monograph in 1926.[1][3][4]

Conant's life-work was the study of the Cluny Abbey, near present-day Mâcon in France, which he excavated beginning in 1927, funded by his first of five separate Guggenheim Fellowships. He considered Cluny the pre-eminent accomplishment in all of architectural history. Excavations continued until 1950.[5][6][7][3]

As well as his work in France, Conant taught architectural history at Harvard from 1924 to 1955.[8]:Note 47 In 1929, Conant compiled a study guide for Harvard students which was the first academic work devoted exclusively to modern architecture, also remarkable for the inclusion of American modernists who would later "fall out of the canon", notably Bertram Goodhue. In 1940, a group of Conant's students formed the Society of Architectural Historians under his influence.[8]:128[9] He retired from Harvard in 1955 but continued to publish. His most important work is Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800–1200 (1959).[2]

References
  1. Fergusson, Peter J. (1985). "Kenneth John Conant (1895-1984)". Gesta. 24 (1): 87–88. JSTOR 766935.
  2. Conant, Kenneth John (1959). Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800-1200. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
  3. Sorensen, Lee; Crockett, Emily. "Conant, Kenneth John". Dictionary of Art Historians. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  4. Conant, Kenneth John (1926). The early architectural history of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
  5. Conant, Kenneth John (1932). "The Apse at Cluny". Speculum. 7 (1): 23–35. JSTOR 2848318.
  6. Conant, Kenneth John (1968). Cluny : les églises et la maison du chef d'ordre (in French). Macon: Imprimerie Protat frères.
  7. Conant, Kenneth John (1970). "Mediaeval Academy Excavations at Cluny, X". Speculum. 45 (1): 1–35. JSTOR 2855982.
  8. Fergusson, Peter (1990). "Medieval Architectural Scholarship in America, 1900-1940: Ralph Adams Cram and Kenneth John Conant". Studies in the History of Art. 35 (Symposium Papers XIX: The Architectural Historian in America): 127–142. JSTOR 42620506.
  9. Coolidge, John (1984). "Kenneth Conant and the Founding of The American Society of Architectural Historians". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 43 (3): 193–194. doi:10.2307/990000.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.