{"id":261029,"date":"2025-05-28T04:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T04:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/art\/in-memoriam-paul-crossley-1945-2019\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T04:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T04:23:09","slug":"in-memoriam-paul-crossley-1945-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=261029","title":{"rendered":"In memoriam Paul Crossley (1945-2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nPaul Crossley, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London has passed away<\/a> on December 11th, 2019. Dr. Crossley was an eminent scholar of Gothic architecture – perhaps best known for the second and much expanded edition of Paul Frankl’s Gothic Architecture<\/i> in the Pelican History of Art series (Yale, 2000). He has made a significant addition to the study of medieval art, primarily through his research on Central European Gothic architecture. He completed his PhD on medieval architecture in Poland, and his book on\u00a0fourteenth-century Polish Gothic Architecture in the Reign of Kasimir the Great was\u00a0published in 1985. In addition, he also published extensively on Gothic architecture in Prague at the time of Charles IV.<\/div>\n
\nPaul Crossley did not publish much about medieval Hungary but was very knowledgeable about it as well. I had a chance to meet him on several occasions, the most memorable of which was when he opened the 2006 exhibition<\/a> dedicated to Emperor Sigismund, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The text of his opening speech was\u00a0published in\u00a0The Hungarian Quarterly<\/i>\u00a0(No. 182, 2006), and can be downloaded from\u00a0this link<\/a>\u00a0– the issue also includes an overview of the exhibition by Ern\u0151 Marosi. The speech was also published in Hungarian in\u00a0\u00c9let \u00e9s Irodalom<\/i>\u00a0(2006. April 7), and I am making it available below. Let me quote a characteristic passage from the original English text of Dr. Crossley:<\/div>\n

\nIn my experience, Hungary had always been the eminence gris<\/i> of later medieval European art\u2014a country of exquisite, but mysterious culture. When I was a student in Cracow, many years ago, my Polish Professor, when asked about a particularly exquisite late medieval or early Renaissance object in Poland, would reply, with hushed wonder: \u201cAh, that is Hungarian\u201d. But how, or why, or when it was Hungarian always remained a mystery. Now, thanks to this spectacular exhibition Sigismundus. Rex et Imperator<\/i>, Hungary\u2019s vital contribution to the international \u201ccourt culture\u201d of later medieval and early Renaissance Christendom has been magnificently recognized. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nPaul will always be remembered as a kind, enthusiastic and funny colleague, and a great champion of Central Europen Gothic art. He will be greatly missed.<\/p>\n

Hungarian translation of the opening speech of the <\/i>Sigismundus – Rex et Imperator exhibition, 2006<\/i><\/p>\n