Paul Crossley, Emeritus Professor of the Heritage of Artwork at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London has
handed away on December 11th, 2019. Dr. Crossley was an eminent scholar of Gothic architecture – most likely most effective recognised for the 2nd and a lot expanded edition of Paul Frankl’s
Gothic Architecture in the Pelican Record of Artwork collection (Yale, 2000). He has created a substantial addition to the examine of medieval artwork, mostly through his analysis on Central European Gothic architecture. He accomplished his PhD on medieval architecture in Poland, and his book on fourteenth-century Polish Gothic Architecture in the Reign of Kasimir the Terrific was published in 1985. In addition, he also posted thoroughly on Gothic architecture in Prague at the time of Charles IV.
Paul Crossley did not publish significantly about medieval Hungary but was very well-informed about it as well. I experienced a likelihood to meet up with him on quite a few situations, the most memorable of which was when he opened the
2006 exhibition devoted to Emperor Sigismund, structured by the Museum of Great Arts in Budapest. The textual content of his opening speech was published in
The Hungarian Quarterly (No. 182, 2006), and can be downloaded from
this backlink – the situation also includes an overview of the exhibition by Ernő Marosi. The speech was also revealed in Hungarian in
Élet és Irodalom (2006. April 7), and I am creating it accessible below. Enable me quote a attribute passage from the primary English textual content of Dr. Crossley:
In my encounter, Hungary experienced normally been the eminence gris of afterwards medieval European art—a country of exquisite, but mysterious culture. When I was a student in Cracow, many decades ago, my Polish Professor, when questioned about a significantly exquisite late medieval or early Renaissance item in Poland, would reply, with hushed wonder: “Ah, that is Hungarian”. But how, or why, or when it was Hungarian always remained a secret. Now, many thanks to this impressive exhibition Sigismundus. Rex et Imperator, Hungary’s very important contribution to the worldwide “court culture” of afterwards medieval and early Renaissance Christendom has been magnificently identified.
Paul will often be remembered as a type, enthusiastic and humorous colleague, and a fantastic winner of Central Europen Gothic artwork. He will be greatly missed.
Hungarian translation of the opening speech of the Sigismundus – Rex et Imperator exhibition, 2006
