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Arthur Dale Trendall, (28 March 1909 – 13 November 1995) was a New Zealand
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
and classical
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
whose work on identifying the work of individual artists on Greek ceramic vessels at
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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and other sites earned him international prizes and a papal knighthood.
Life
Educated at the
University of Otago
, image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg
, image_size =
, caption = University clock tower
, motto = la, Sapere aude
, mottoeng = Dare to be wise
, established = 1869; 152 years ago
, type = Public research collegiate u ...
(1926–29) and the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
(1931–33), Trendall was professionally associated with the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
and
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
. He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Master of University House at the latter institution. From 1969 until his death he was Resident Fellow at La Trobe University in Melbourne.
Wartime service
In January 1940, with the encouragement of the Australian Army, Trendall, together with some colleagues at the University of Sydney, began to study Japanese codes. The others were the mathematicians
Thomas Gerald Room and Richard Lyons and the classicist Athanasius Treweek. In May 1941 Room and Treweek attended a meeting at the Victoria Barracks in Melbourne with the Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Australian Navy, several Australian Army intelligence officers and Eric Nave, an expert Japanese cryptographer with the Royal Australian Navy. As a result it was agreed that Room's group, with the agreement of the University of Sydney, would move in August 1941 to work under Nave at the Special Intelligence Bureau in Melbourne. After the outbreak of war they were working for FRUMEL (Fleet Radio Unit Melbourne), a joint American-Australian intelligence unit, but when Lieutenant Rudolph Fabian took over command of FRUMEL and particularly when, in October 1942, FRUMEL was placed under direct control of the US Navy, civilians such as the member of Room's group were found surplus to requirements and returned to their academic posts.
Legacy
According to
Oliver Taplin
Oliver Taplin, FBA (born 2 August 1943) is a retired British academic and classicist. He was a fellow of Magdalen College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil from Oxford University.
Ac ...
, Trendall "almost single-handedly ... imposed order on the more than 20.000 known red-figure vases from Sicily, South Italy, Campania and Paestum, allocating each one to an area of production and approximate date, and attributing them to individual painters or groups of painters".
Oliver Taplin
Oliver Taplin, FBA (born 2 August 1943) is a retired British academic and classicist. He was a fellow of Magdalen College and Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil from Oxford University.
Ac ...
Ian McPhee, Myth, Drama and Style in South Italian Vase-Painting: Selected Papers by A.D. Trendall. Studies in Mediterranean archaeology and literature, PB 182. Uppsala: Åströms Förlag, 2016. (review)
brynmawr.edu. Retrieved 25 October 2022. Moreover, he was responsible for "superbly acute and well- informed observations on the subject-matter and interpretation of the vases, whether mythological, cultic, funerary, social, theatrical or artistic."
Honours
In the New Years Honours of 1961, Trendall was appointed a
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III.
...
(CMG), in recognition of his service as "Vice-Chancellor" of the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
.
On 20 July 1961 he was appointed Cavaliere Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.
In the Australia Day Honours of 1976, he was appointed a
Companion of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...
.
[
In 1997 the ]Australian Academy of the Humanities
The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...
, of which Prof. Trendall was a Foundation Fellow, inaugurated the Trendall Lectures. Some of those were published as printed booklets and others were published online or in the ''Humanities Australia'' journal. The Trendall Lecture "alternates between an Australian and an international scholar with a research interest in classical studies"Trendall Lectures 1997-2020
humanities.org.au. Retrieved 24 October 2022. and is delivered in conjunction with the conference of the
Australasian Society for Classical Studies The Australasian Society for Classical Studies (ASCS) is an international organisation which aims to promote the advancement of the study of ancient Greece and Rome, and their related fields. The organisation was established in 1966. The current sen ...
.
Selected works
* ''Paestan Pottery: A Study of the Red-Figured Vases of Paestum'' (London: Macmillan, 1936)
* ''Frühitaliotische Vasen'' (Bilder griechischer Vasen, Heft 12) (Leipzig: Verlag Heinrich Keller, 1938)
* ''Vasi antichi dipinti del Vaticano: Vasi italioti ed etruschi a figure rosse'' (Città del Vaticano: 1953)
* ''Phlyax Vases''. 2nd ed. (London: University of London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1967) (Bulletin Supplements, 19)
* ''The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily''
volumes: Vol. 1: Text; Vol. 2: Indexes and Plates.(Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology) (Oxford: University Press, 1967)
* with T. B. L. Webster: ''Illustrations of Greek Drama'' (London: Phaidon, 1971; New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971)
* ''Early South Italian Vase-Painting''. Revised 1973 (Forschungen zur antiken Keramik, Heft 12) (Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Phillip von Zabern, 1974)
* with Alexander Cambitoglou: ''The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, 1. Early and Middle Apulian'' (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978)
* with Alexander Cambitoglou: ''The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, 2. Late Apulian''. Indexes (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982)
* with Alexander Cambitoglou: ''The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, Indexes'' (Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982). Contents: 1. Collections, 2. Concordance with CVA and other publications, 3. Mythological Representations, 4. General, 5. Vase-Painters and Groups. Also: a table of stylistic and chronological relations.
* ''The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily. Third Supplement. Consolidated'' (Bulletin Supplements, 41) (University of London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1983)
* with Alexander Cambitoglou: ''First Supplement to the Red-Figured Vases of Apulia'' (Bulletin Supplements, 42) (University of London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1983)
* with Ian McPhee: ''Greek Red-Figured Fish-Plates'' (Beiheft zur Halbjahresschrift Antike Kunst, 14) (Basel: Vereinigung der Freunde Antiker Kunst c/o Archäologisches Seminar der Universität, 1987)
* ''The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum'' (Rome: British School at Rome, 1987)
* ''Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily: A Handbook''. London: Thames and Hudson 1989; German language edition: ''Rotfigurige Vasen aus Unteritalien und Sizilien: Ein Handbuch''. (Kulturgeschichte der antiken Welt, Band 47) Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1991.
* with Ian McPhee: "Addenda to 'Greek Red-figured fish-plates'". In: ''Antike Kunst'' 33 (1990) 31–51
* with Alexander Cambitoglou: ''Second Supplement to the Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, 1–3'' (University of Bulletin Supplements, 60) (University of London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1991–92)
* Ian McPhee, ed.: ''Myth, Drama and Style in South Italian Vase-Painting: Selected Papers by A.D. Trendall''. (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology and Literature, PB 182) (Uppsala: Åströms förlag, 2016)
Secondary literature
* Ian McPhee, 'Arthur Dale Trendall 1909–1995. A Memoir', ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', 97 (1998), 501–517. Reprinted in ''Myth, Drama and Style in South Italian Vase Painting'', edited by Ian McPhee, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology PB 182 (Astrom Editions, 2016).
* Alexander Cambitoglou (ed.), ''Studies in honour of Arthur Dale Trendall'' (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1979).
* 'Arthur Dale Trendall. Bibliography 1934–1987', in ''Greek colonists and native populations'', Proceedings of the First Australian Congress of Classical Archaeology, Sydney 9–14 July 1985 (Canberra 1990) 649–655.
* ''The Times'' (London), 4. December 1995.
* John Richard Green, Ian McPhee, '"Kein Wort von ihnen, schau und geh vorüber": Zum Tod von Arthur Dale Trendall', ''Antike Welt'' 27 (1996) 67–68.
*
Henri Metzger
Henri Metzger (; 19 August 1912 – 2 October 2007) was a French archaeologist and Hellenist, a member of the Institut de France. He specialized in pottery of ancient Greece, particularly from Athens, and archaeology in Anatolia, specifically in ...
, 'Arthur Dale Trendall, 1909 – 1995', ''Revue archéologique'' 1996, 411–413.
* L. Cozza Luzi, 'Arthur Dale Trendall, 1909–1995', ''Atti della Pontificia academia romana di Archeologia. Rendiconti'' 70 (1997–98) 321–322.
References
Further reading
* Arthur Cambitoglou (n.d.)
"Arthur Dale Trendall (1909-1995)" at
Australian Academy of the Humanities
The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...
External links
A.D. Trendall Research Centre for Ancient Mediterranean Studies at
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trendall, Arthur Dale
1909 births
1995 deaths
Australian archaeologists
Classical archaeologists
Australian National University faculty
New Zealand archaeologists
Scholars of ancient Greek pottery
University of Otago alumni
Australian cryptographers
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
Companions of the Order of Australia
Fellows of the British Academy
Australian people of World War II
New Zealand emigrants to Australia
20th-century archaeologists