Joseph-Aurélien Cornet (born 20 May 1919 in Bièvre, died 20 January 2004 in Ciney,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

) was a Belgian-born Christian Brother,

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

and

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 ...

who documented the art and culture of the Congolese region and people of the

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

in photographs, illustrated field notebooks, and language primers for nearly 30 years.

Education and career

Cornet was educated by the Christian Brothers of

Louvain Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic c ...

. He entered the

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

in 1935, earned a teaching degree in 1938, followed by bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in art history from the Catholic University of Louvain in 1945 and 1970, respectively. In 1970, Cornet also became the first local director of the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Congo (IMNC) and then, in 1971, director of the Institut des Musées Nationaux du Zaïre (IMNZ). The IMNC was founded without either a building or any objects, so Cornet's primary task was to develop the museum's collections. He did so primarily among the Woyo, the Kuba, and the Nkundu peoples. He documented his findings in field notebooks and binders of photo negatives with the aim of eventually developing a ten volume History of Congolese Art. Cornet retired from the directorship of the IMNC in 1987 and returned to Belgium in 1992 where he continued researching, publishing and lecturing, especially on tracking looted objects from the museum following the 1997 collapse of the Mobutu regime. Following his death in 2004, Cornet's archive of photographic negative binders, field notebooks, language and personal notes, printed materials, and other research objects were donated to the

Loyola University New Orleans Loyola University New Orleans is a Private university, private Jesuit university in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name o ...

Special Collections & Archives.

Bibliography

*Joseph-Aurélien Cornet. ''Art Du Zaïre: 100 Chefs-d'oeuvre de la Collection Nationale.'' African-American Institute, 1975 - Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic) - 132 pages *Joseph-Aurélien Cornet, Victor Bol. ''

Moseka Yogo Ambake Moseka Yogo Ambake or Yogo Ambake Moseka (29 August 19566 May 2019) was a Congolese-born painter who later lived and worked in Brussels, Belgium. Active during the 1980s and 1990s, her work was featured in several international exhibitions. Biog ...

.'' Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde, 1994 - 23 pages *Joseph Aurélien Cornet. ''Zaïre: volken, kunst, kultuur.'' Mercatorfonds, 1989 - Art, Congolese (Democratic Republic) - 407 pages *Joseph-Aurélien Cornet, Musée de Louvain-la-Neuve, Nicole Ledent, Anne Massaux, Christine Thiry, Bernard Van den Driessche, Ignace Vandevivere. ''Collections africaines: Florilège.'' Musée de Louvain-la-Neuve, 2000 - Art - 110 pages.

References

External links

*Joseph-Aurélien Cornet, F.S.C. Collection digitized field notebooks, http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/loyno-p120701coll28:collection *Preliminary Inventory of Joseph-Aurélien Cornet, F.S.C., Collection, Special Collections & Archives, J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans http://library.loyno.edu/assets/handouts/archives/Cornet_Preliminary_Inventory_2015.pdf * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornet, Joseph-Aurélien Belgian Christians 1919 births 2004 deaths Belgian ethnologists Belgian art historians Democratic Republic of the Congo culture