Joseph James Connors (born February 5, 1945 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 ...

) is an American art historian and educator, who specializes in the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

and

Baroque architecture Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means t ...

Career

Born in

, Connors was graduated from Regis High School in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He earned his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

from Boston College in 1966. Two years later, Connors received a

Marshall Scholarship The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...

to study at

Clare College Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

for a year. After a period teaching Greek and Latin at the Boston Latin School, Connors studied with Ernst Kitzinger and James S. Ackerman in the Department of Fine Arts of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

1978). He has taught at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

(1975–80);

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 ...

(1980–2001), where he served as chairman of the Department of Art History and Archaeology in 1999-2001 and received the President's Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2001; and Harvard University (2011-2019). Connors’ research centers on the architecture of seventeenth-century Rome and in particular on the genial, enigmatic figure of Francesco Borromini (1599–1667). He has also written on town planning in Rome from the late Renaissance to the eighteenth century, pioneering a view of urban change generated around large and long-lived institutions. Connors served as director of 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, ...

in 1988-92 and of Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, from 2002 to 2010. To date he is the only person to have directed both of the major American research institutes in Italy. He has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, the Guggenheim Foundation, CASVA at the National Gallery of Art, the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, All Souls College, Oxford, and the

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculp ...

, and he was

Slade Professor The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London. History The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collect ...

at Oxford in 1999. He was elected to the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome in 1993, and to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in Philadelphia in 2003. He served as President of the Renaissance Society of America in 2014-16. In 2013, a book was written in honor of Connors' work as director of the Villa I Tatti titled ''Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors'', .

Personal life

Connors married Françoise Gabrielle Germaine Moison in 1969 in

Gagny Gagny () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Geography Location Gagny is located 10 km to the east of Paris. Until the law of 10 July 1964, the commune was part of the departm ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

; they have two children, Geneviève (b. 1975) and Thomas (b. 1978).

Works

*''Borromini and the Roman Oratory: Style and Society'', 1980, *''The Robie House of Frank Lloyd Wright'', 1984, *''Specchio di Roma barocca: Una guida inedita del XVII secolo'', 1991, *''Alleanze e inimicizie: L'urbanistica di Roma barocca'', 2005, *''Piranesi and the Campus Martius: The Missing Corso'', 2011, *''Bernard Berenson: Formation and Heritage'', with Louis Waldman, 2014,

References

External links

The New York Review of Books profile

Harvard University Faculty Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connors, Joseph 1945 births Living people American art historians Boston College alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Marshall Scholars Columbia University faculty University of Chicago faculty Harvard University faculty Slade Professors of Fine Art (University of Oxford) Members of the American Philosophical Society