José María de Azcárate y Ristori (1919–2001) was a Spanish art historian, author, researcher, curator, and professor, specializing in medieval Castilian art and Renaissance sculpture.

Biography

Born 18 April 1919 in Vigo, in the province of Pontevedra, Spain. His father was a sailor and early in his son's life he moved the family to

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

, Spain. He studied at

University of Seville The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, it has a present student body of over 69.200, and is one of the top-ranked universi ...

and at University of Madrid in the subjects of Philosophy and Literature, eventually earning a doctorate from University of Madrid. He was disciple of Manuel Gómez-Moreno Martinez. Azcárate authored many art history books, including a ''History of Art,'' also known as ''El Azcárate'', used by many students studying philosophy and

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alpha ...

. He also authored the thirteenth volume of Ars Hispaniae; historia universal del arte hispánico (1949), a book series on the art history of Spain. Azcárate was the Chair of History of Medieval Art at

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

from 1973, until his death in 2001. He died at the age of 82 on 18 July 2001, of a heart attack at his home in Madrid, Spain. He was buried in a cemetery in Almudena.

Awards and memberships

In 1974, he joined membership to the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts with the topic "El protogótico hispánico" and he was additionally a member of the royal academies of Valladolid, Seville, Toledo, A Coruña, Cadiz and Barcelona. He was awarded with the

National Prize for Literature (Spain) This is a list of the National Prizes awarded by Spain's Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) *Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * ...

Alonso Berruguete Alonso González de Berruguete (Alonso Berruguete) (c. 1488 – 1561) was a Spanish painter, sculptor and architect. He is considered to be the most important sculptor of the Spanish Renaissance, and is known for his emotive sculptures depict ...

in 1961. The

University of Alicante The University of Alicante ( ca-valencia, Universitat d'Alacant, italic=no, ; es, Universidad de Alicante, italic=no, ; also known by the acronym ''UA'') was established in 1979 on the basis of the Center for University Studies (CEU), which was fo ...

awarded Azcárate with an

honorary doctorate degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

in 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azcarate, Jose Maria 1919 births 2001 deaths Spanish art historians Academic staff of the Complutense University of Madrid University of Seville alumni People from Cádiz Architecture academics