Peter John Murray (23 April 1920 – 20 April 1992) was a British art historian and the Professor of History of Art at Birkbeck College, London from 1967 to 1980. Together with his wife, Linda Murray, he wrote primers on Italian

Renaissance art Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

which have been used by generations of students. In 1959 they published the highly successful ''Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists'', which was frequently updated and reissued. In 1963, they published two substantial introductory texts ''The Art of the Renaissance,'' and a book that became a classic primer ''The Architecture of the Renaissance''. Linda also wrote several books on her own, and completed their collaboration ''The Oxford Companion To Christian Art And Architecture'' (1996) after Peter died.

Early life and education

Murray was born in 1920 in London. His parents were John Knowles Murray, an agricultural businessman, and Dorothy Catton (Murray). He went to King Edward VI School, Birmingham and Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen. He trained as a painter at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen and at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London, graduating in 1940. Murray studied history of art at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

, University of London, graduating in 1947. It was here that he met his wife, fellow student Linda Bramley (1913–2004). They married in 1947.

Academic career

Murray lectured at the Courtauld Institute and Birkbeck College from 1948, while working on his PhD on the textual sources of

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giot ...

's work. He received his PhD from the Courtauld Institute in 1956. In 1952, he became the librarian of the Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute (leaving this position in 1964) and in 1961 he was made senior research fellow at the college. Murray moved to Birkbeck College, London in 1967 as Professor of Art History, succeeding

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

. He established history of art as an undergraduate discipline at the college, the subject previously having been taught outside the college's departmental structure. Murray retired as professor emeritus in 1980 and was succeeded by John Steer. He was a gifted linguist, especially in German and Italian, and translated seminal art history texts into English, including ''Klassische Kunst'', by

Heinrich Wölfflin Heinrich Wölfflin (; 21 June 1864 – 19 July 1945) was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles ("painterly" vs. "linear" and the like) were influential in the development of formal analysis in ar ...

in 1952 and ''Die Geschichte der Renaissance'' by Jacob Burckhardt in 1985. He was the president of the

Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) is a United Kingdom learned society for people interested in the history of architecture. Purpose The Society exists to encourage interest in the history of architecture, to enab ...

from 1969 to 1972, and the chairman of the

Walpole Society The Walpole Society, named after Horace Walpole, was founded in 1911 to promote the study of the history of British art and artists. From 1762 on, Walpole had published the first history of art in Britain, based on the manuscript notebooks of G ...

from 1978 to 1981.

Murray Bequest

After his death in 1992 (Farnborough, Wiltshire), Linda Murray established the Murray Bequest at Birkbeck College. It funds support for students and research travel, as well as the Murray Research Studentship for part-time PhD research in the field of European art or architecture in the Middle Ages or Renaissance. It also funds the biennial Murray Memorial Lecture.

Photography

Photographs by Peter Murray are held in the Conway Library at the Courtauld Institute of Art and are currently being digitised.

Selected publications

Wölfflin, Heinrich, translated by Murray, P., Murray, L., 1952. ''Classic art: An introduction to the Italian Renaissance''. Phaidon, Murray, P., 1959. ''An index of attributions made in Tuscan sources before Vasari''. L.S. Olschki. Murray, P., Murray, L., 1959. ''Penguin dictionary of art and artists''. Penguin. Murray, P., Murray, L., 1963. ''The art of the renaissance'', ' The World of Art Library' series.

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

Murray, P., 1963. ''The architecture of the Italian Renaissance''. Batsford. Kidson, P., Murray, P., Thompson, P., ''1965. A history of English architecture.'' Penguin. Murray, P., Murray, L., 1967. ''The High Renaissance and Mannerism'', 'The World of Art Library' series. Thames & Hudson.

Burckhardt, Jacob Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. Sigfri ...

., translated by Murray, P., 1985. ''The architecture of the Italian Renaissance''. University of Chicago Press. Murray, L., Murray, P., 1996. ''The Oxford Companion To Christian Art And Architecture.'' Oxford University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Peter 1920 births 1992 deaths Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art 20th-century British historians British art historians