Otto Johannes Brendel (October 10, 1901 in
Erlangen
Erlangen (; East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 116,062 inhab ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
– October 8, 1973 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
) was a German art historian and scholar of
Etruscan __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
** Etrusca ...
art and archaeology.
Biography
In 1928, he received his Ph.D. from the
Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
under
Ludwig Curtius on the topic of Roman iconography of the Augustan period. While at Heidelberg, Brendel studied with many notable scholars, including
Franz Boll,
E. Wayne Craven,
Alfred von Domaszewski
Alfred von Domaszewski (October 30, 1856 – March 25, 1927) was an Austrian historian born in Timișoara in the Habsburg monarchy.
He received his education in Vienna, and following graduation remained in Vienna as a secondary school teacher. ...
,
Friedrich Karl von Duhn,
Richard Carl Meister
Richard Carl Meister (July 27, 1848 – November 30, 1912) was a German classical scholar and linguist born in Dresden. He specialized in the field of Greek dialects.
From 1872 he taught classes at Nikolai Gymnasium in Leipzig, where in 1892 ...
,
Eugen Täubler, the literary theorist
Ernst Robert Curtius
Ernst Robert Curtius (; 14 April 1886 – 19 April 1956) was a German literary scholar, philologist, and Romance language literary critic, best known for his 1948 study ''Europäische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter'', translated in Eng ...
,
Friedrich Gundolf,
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspe ...
, and the classical art historians
Karl Lehmann
Karl Lehmann (16 May 1936 – 11 March 2018) was a German Cardinal prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to Cardinal in 2001. He also served as Chairman of the Conference of the Ge ...
and
Friedrich Zimmer. He emigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in 1938.
In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, he taught at
Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
from 1938 to 1941 and
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
from 1941 to 1956. From 1949 to 1951, Brendel was at the
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome.
The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.
History
In 1893, a group of American architects, ...
, first under a
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...
and then with a
Fulbright Fellowship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
. In 1956, he became Professor of
Art History
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
Archaeology
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 ...
at
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 ...
, and became ''emeritus'' in 1963, continuing to teach until his retirement in June 1973. He died that September. At the time of his death he had written the manuscript for the
Pelican History of Art
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Emeline Hill Richardson
Emeline Hurd Hill Richardson (June 6, 1910 in Buffalo, New York, USA – August 29, 1999 in Durham, North Carolina) was a notable classical archaeologist and Etruscan scholar. Hill was the daughter of William Hurd Hill and Emeleen Carlisle (Hill ...]
, and published in 1978. His work ''Prolegomena to the Study of Roman Art'' represents a notable scholarly approach to the historiography of Roman art.
Otto's wife Maria arranged to have many of his unfinished works published after his death.
One of Brendel's students was
Larissa Bonfante
Larissa Bonfante (March 27, 1931, Naples, Italy – August 23, 2019, New York City, New York) was an Italian-American classicist, Professor of Classics ''emerita'' at New York University and an authority on Etruscan language and culture.
Biogra ...
. Brendel married
Maria Weigert Brendel (1902-1994) in 1929.
[http://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/bios/Brendel_Maria%20Weigert.pdf ] Brendel's daughter
Cornelia Brendel Foss was married to American composer
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor.
Career
Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...
.
[Metropolitan Museum of Ar]
Bulletin 2008
/ref>
Bibliography
*
* "Prolegomena to the Study of Roman Art." ''Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome'' 21 (1953): 7-73, revised and reprinted separately as ''Prolegomena to the Study of Roman Art''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979.
* ''Etruscan Art''. ''Pelican History of Art'' 43. New York: Penguin Books, 1978, 2nd ed, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. .
* ''The Visible Idea: Interpretations of Classical Art''. Washington, DC: Decatur House, 1980.
* ''Ikonographie des Kaisers Augustus''. 1931.
* "Symbolik der Kugel." ''Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Roemische Abteilung'' 51 (1936): 1-95, reprinted as ''Symbolism of the Sphere: a Contribution to the History of Earlier Greek philosophy''. Leiden: Brill, 1977.
* "Classicism in Roman architecture." ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'' 29 (October 1970): 264.
* "Borrowings from ancient art in Titian." ''Art Bulletin'' 37 (June 1955): 113-25.
Further reading
* Calder, William M., III. "Biographical Note." ''In Memoriam Otto J. Brendel: Essays in Archaeology and the Humanities''. Edited by Larissa Bonfante and Helga von Heintze. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1976, x-xi. omplete bibliography,xii-xiv.
* Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. ''Modern Perspectives in Western Art History: An Anthology of 20th-Century Writings on the Visual Arts''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971, p. 81.
* ''Archäologenbildnisse: Porträts und Kurzbiographien von Klassichen Archäologen deutscher Sprache''. Reinhard Lullies, ed. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1988: 283-284.
* Calder, William. "Brendel, Otto J." ''Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology''. Nancy Thomson de Grummond, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 190–91.
* Obermayer, Hans Peter. "He is pure Aryan" – Otto Brendel. In Obermayer. Deutsche Altertumswissenschaftler im amerikanischen Exil. Eine Rekonstruktion. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2014: 192–220.
References
External links
Otto Brendel papers, 1940s-1970
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brendel Otto
American archaeologists
American art historians
Archaeologists from Bavaria
German art historians
Etruscan scholars
Washington University in St. Louis faculty
Indiana University faculty
Columbia University faculty
Heidelberg University alumni
1901 births
1973 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
German male non-fiction writers
German emigrants to the United States
American male non-fiction writers