Giles Henry Robertson

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

RSA (Hon) (1913–1987) was a 20th-century British art historian and expert on the Italian Renaissance.

Life

He was born in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1913 the son of Prof Donald Struan Robertson, professor of Greek at

Cambridge University , 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 ...

. His elder brother was

Martin Robertson Charles Martin Robertson (11 September 1911 – 26 December 2004) was a British classical scholar and poet. He specialised in the art and archaeology of Ancient Greece. Early life He was the elder son of Donald Struan Robertson and Petica Cour ...

. Giles was educated at

the Leys School The Leys School is a co-educational independent school in Cambridge, England. It is a day and boarding school for about 574 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen, and a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Histo ...

in Cambridge then read classics at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was first conscripted into a searchlight unit, then reassigned to

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

in 1941. At the end of hostilities in Europe he joined the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program team (the "Monuments Men") to track art treasures hidden by the Nazis or looted by Allied troops. In September 1945 this included locating stolen treasures in

Vorden Vorden is a former municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands, about 10 kilometres south-east of Zutphen. On 1 January 2005 the municipality merged with Hummelo en Keppel, Steenderen, Hengelo en Zelhem, to form the new municipality Bronckh ...

and

Corvey The Princely Abbey of Corvey (german: link=no, Fürststift Corvey or Fürstabtei Corvey) is a former Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastical principality now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was one of the half-dozen self-ruling '' princely ...

(previously belonging in the Landmuseum in Munster) and transferring these to

Schloss Nordkirchen Schloss Nordkirchen is a palace situated in the town of Nordkirchen in the Coesfeld administrative district in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. The ''schloss'' was largely built between 1703 and 1734 and is known as the "Versaill ...

. Late in 1946 he began lecturing in fine art history at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...

. He was promoted several times eventually holding the

Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art The Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art is a professorship at the University of Edinburgh. History The chair was founded in 1880. John Watson Gordon was a Scottish painter who died in 1864. His brother and sister endowed the professorship in his memo ...

in 1972, remaining in this post until retirement in 1981. In 1975 he guided the construction and opening of the

Talbot Rice Gallery Talbot Rice Gallery is the public art gallery of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. With a 19th-century former natural history museum and a contemporary white cube gallery. History The University of Edinburgh's historic Old College wa ...

, named after his predecessor Professor

David Talbot Rice David Talbot Rice (11 July 1903 in Rugby – 12 March 1972 in Cheltenham) was an English archaeologist and art historian. He has been described variously as a "gentleman academic" and an "amateur" art historian, though such remarks are no ...

. In 1982 he was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

John Cameron, Lord Cameron John Cameron, Lord Cameron, KT, DSC, PRSE, FBA (8 February 1900 – 30 May 1996) was a Scottish judge and President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1973 to 1976. Life Cameron was born in London, the son of John Cameron SSC NP, a soli ...

, John McIntyre, Neil Campbell and Colin Thompson. He died at

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Vincenzo Catena Vincenzo Catena (c. 1480–1531) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance Venetian school. He is also known as Vincenzo de Biagio. Life Nothing is known of the date and place of Catena's birth. The earliest known record of him is in an inscr ...

'' (1954) *''

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

'' (1968) *''Artist and Art Historian'' (1972) *''Studies in Memory of

'' (1975) *''Aleksander Zyw'' (1975)

References

1913 births 1987 deaths People from Cambridge Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Edinburgh British art historians Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{UK-historian-stub