Charles Rufus Morey
| Charles Rufus Morey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1877 Hastings, Michigan, United States |
| Died | 1955 Princeton, New Jersey, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Art historian, lecturer, librarian |
Charles Rufus Morey (1877–1955) was an American art historian and professor and chairman of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University from 1924 to 1945. He is best known for his expertise in medieval art and his Index of Christian Art. He was one of the founders of the College Art Association.
Born in Hastings, Michigan in 1877, Morey graduated from the University of Michigan in 1899. After receiving a Master's Degree there in Classics he went on to study for three years at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome, publishing his first article, "The Christian Sarcophagus in S. Maria Antiqua" in 1905.
Morey became an instructor in classics at Princeton University in 1903, but on a colleague request, namely Allan Marquand, he switched to the Department of Art and Archaeology, in which he began a career of 39 years in art history. Upon Marquand's death in 1924, Morey assumed his position as chairman of this department at Princeton University. Medieval iconography was a major topic of interest to Morey, leading him to draw up an image collection in 1917 of late antique, early Christian-era,medieval works of art, a collection which would blossom into a cataloged collection of photographs known as the Index of Christian Art. Considered to be "indebted to photography", Morey's stance on the process of iconographic analysis and Index of Christian Art has been attributed by scholars as contributing substantially to the formulation of Erwin Panofsky’s methodology of subject analysis. In 1929 Morey began cataloging the collection of the Museo Cristiano, part of the Vatican library. During his lifetime he made many trips back and forth to Rome to develop collections in the Vatican and established the Antioch archaeological excavation of Daphne. Morey was noted for his work in helping establish various libraries and indexing image systems. In 1932 he published a pamphlet on scholarly library planning, named the "Laboratory-Library,". In 1938 Morey was named Marquand Chair of Art and Archaeology.
Following the end of World War II, Morey resigned at Princeton and became the first Cultural Attaché to the American Embassy in Rome. Morey was the acting director of the American Academy from 1945-1947. Morey also helped establish the College Art Association in 1911 and its primary publication, The Art Bulletin.
...
Wikipedia