Christopher Ernest Tadgell (born 15 May 1939) is a British scholar of architectural history. He taught for over thirty years, and following retirement continues to research, photograph, and write about architecture.

Education and academic career

Tadgell studied art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. He was awarded his PhD in 1974 upon the completion of his thesis on the Neoclassical architectural theorist Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Tadgell taught at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

and at the

Kent Institute of Art and Design The Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD, often ) was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone Col ...

in Canterbury, holding the F.L. Morgan Professor of Architectural Design position at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

, and membership of the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

, Princeton. Tadgell has lectured on architectural history topics at Canterbury College, Kent Institute of Art and Design,

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, and

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

. In 1983, Tadgell was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Between 2008 and 2016, he served as a Trustee of the World Monuments Fund. He is currently a trustee of the

Academy of Ancient Music The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is a British period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after an 18th-century organisation of the same name (originally the A ...

. Photographs by Tadgell are currently being digitised by the Courtauld Institute of Art as part of their Conway Library digitisation project.

Selected publications

Blunt, Anthony, ed., Christopher Tadgell, and Alastair Lang. ''Baroque and Rococo Architecture and Decoration.'' London: Elek, 1978. Tadgell, Christopher. ''Antiquity: Origins, Classicism and the New Rome.'' Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2007. Tadgell, Christopher. ''Hellenic Classicism: The Ordering of Form in the Ancient Greek World.'' London: Ellipsis, 1998. Tadgell, Christopher. ''Imperial Form: From Achaemenid Iran to Augustan Rome.'' London: Ellipsis, 1998. Tadgell, Christopher. ''Imperial Space: Rome, Constantinople and the Early Church.'' London: Ellipsis, 1998. Tadgell, Christopher. ''Islam: From Medina to the Magreb and from the Indies to Istanbul.'' Abingdon: Routledge, 2008. Tadgell, Christopher. ''Japan: The Informal Contained''. London: Ellipsis, 2000. Tadgell, Christopher. ''The East: Buddhists, Hindus and the Sons of Heaven.'' Abingdon: Routledge, 2008. Tadgell, Christopher. ''The History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilization to the End of the Raj.'' London: Phaidon, 2002. Tadgell, Christopher. ''The Louvre and Versailles: The Evolution of the Proto-typical Palace in the Age of Absolutism''. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2020. Tadgell, Christopher. ''The West: From the Advent of Christendom to the Eve of Reformation.'' Abingdon: Routledge, 2009. Tadgell, Christopher. ''Reformations: From High Renaissance to Mannerism in the New West of Religious Contention and Colonial Expansion.'' Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2012. Tadgell, Christopher, Rita Sharma and Vijay Sharma.''The Forts of India''. London: Collins, 1986.

Personal life

Tadgell was born in Sydney, Australia on 15 March 1939. He is married to

Lady Juliet Tadgell Lady Ann Juliet Dorothea Maud Tadgell (''née'' Wentworth-Fitzwilliam; born 24 January 1935), previously Marchioness of Bristol, is a British heiress, race horse breeder, and landowner. She consistently appears on the ''Sunday Times'' Rich Lis ...

(née Wentworth-Fitzwilliam). They live on

Bourne Park Bourne Park may refer to: * Bourne Park (football ground), former home of Sittingbourne F.C. * Bourne Park House Bourne Park House is a Queen Anne style country house on Bourne Park Road, between Bishopsbourne and Bridge near Canterbury in Ken ...

estate in Kent.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tadgell, Christopher Ernest British architectural historians Academics from Sydney 1939 births Living people