Peter von Blanckenhagen

Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen ( born March 21, 1909 in Riga, † 6 March 1990 in New York) was an American classical archaeologist.

Life

His study of classical archeology in Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, joined by Blanckenhagen in 1936 with a doctorate in Munich from; His doctoral thesis was Flavian architecture. Only after obtaining German citizenship in 1941, he could work at the university and in 1941 assistant at Friedrich Matz in Marburg. For 1942/43, it the travel grant of the German Archaeological Institute was awarded, he but due to the war could not compete. The intervening time he spent with his studies in Italy and Germany. From 1946 to 1950 he was a lecturer at the University of Hamburg, interrupted by a visiting professor in Chicago.

In 1950 Blanckenhagen changed permanently as a professor at the University of Chicago, the citizenship of the United States he received in 1956. 1959 he received the Robert Lehman Chair at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Blanckenhagen held guest lectures at Princeton University ( Christian Gauss Seminar, 1969), the University of Cincinnati ( Semple Lectures, 1972) and the Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (1976). After his retirement in 1977, he remained in New York and got his university more years for courses available.

Blanckenhagen was a specialist in Hellenistic and especially of Roman Art, primarily architecture, wall painting and sculpture. His lectures on these subjects were characterized by a charismatic presentation style.

Memberships and Honors

• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Member of the American Philosophical Society
• Member of the German Archaeological Institute
• Great Federal Cross of Merit, 1981
• Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America, 1982
• Establishment of an annual Memorial Lecture by the Archaeological Institute of America

Writings (selection )

• Flavian architecture and its decoration examined at the Forum of Nerva. Thesis. Man, Berlin 1940.
• The image of man in Roman art. Scherpe, Krefeld 1948.
• Christine Alexander: The Paintings from Boscotrecase. Guys, Heidelberg, 1962 ( = reports of the German Archaeological Institute, Rome Division. Supplement No. 6 ).
• The Odyssey Frieze. In: Reports of the German Archaeological Institute, Rome Division. Volume 70, 1963.
• The supplemental viewer. Comments on an aspect of Hellenistic art. In: Transformations. Studies of ancient and modern art. Festschrift for Ernst Homann- Wedeking. Stiftland, Forest Assen 1975.
• Christine Alexander: The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase. Saverne, Mainz 1990 ( = German Archaeological Institute, Rome. Writings Special Vol 8).