Andrew Michael Jaffé (3 June 1923 – 13 July 1997) was a British
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 ...
and
curator. He was Director of the
Fitzwilliam Museum in
Cambridge,
England for 17 years, from 1973 to 1990.
Life
Born in
London, he was educated at Wagner's and at
Eton College. Jaffé's undergraduate studies were delayed for four years by
World War II, during which time he served in the
RNVR. He came up to
King's College, Cambridge in 1945, studying History before changing to English, in which subject he got a First. He became President of the
Marlowe Society, and was editor of ''
Granta'' while a student. After Cambridge, he studied art history at the
Courtauld Institute, where he attended Johannes Wilde's lectures and had access to the Seilern Collection; this was followed by research at
Harvard
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 higher le ...
on
Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
and his contemporaries.
[
He became a Fellow of King's College in 1952, holding the position until his death; was appointed as Cambridge University's only Assistant Lecturer in Fine Arts in 1956; and began undergraduate teaching in the subject. He held the post for four years until going to Washington University in 1960, where he was briefly Professor of Renaissance Art until returning to Cambridge University in 1961, when he was appointed Lecturer in Fine Arts. In 1968 he was appointed Reader in History of Western Art, and he became Head of Department of History of Art in 1970, a position he held until 1973 and his appointment to the Directorship of the Fitzwilliam Museum.][
Jaffé married Patricia Milne-Henderson in 1964, and they had two sons and two daughters. Jaffé owned the country house Clifton Maybank near Yeovil in Somerset. He was appointed a CBE in 1989. He died on 13 July 1997. A bronze portrait bust of Jaffé by Elisabeth Frink is in the Fitzwilliam.][
]
Selected works
*''Van Dyck's Antwerp Sketchbook'' 1966
*''Rubens'' 1967
*''Jacob Jordaens 1593–1678'' 1968
*''Rubens and Italy'' 1977
*''Rubens: catalogo completo'' 1989
*''Old master drawings from Chatsworth'' 1993
*editor of ''The Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings'' 1994
References
External links
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffe, Michael
1923 births
1997 deaths
20th-century British historians
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Fellows of King's College, Cambridge
University of Washington faculty
British art historians
English curators
Directors of museums in the United Kingdom
People associated with the Fitzwilliam Museum
Scholars of Netherlandish art
Peter Paul Rubens
Writers from London