| John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 December 1913 London, England |
| Died | 31 October 1994 (aged 80) Florence, Italy |
| Resting place | Cimitero degli Allori, Florence |
| Occupation | Art historian and museum director |
Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy CBE FBA FSA (13 December 1913 – 31 October 1994) was an English art historian and museum director. He was a scholar of Italian Renaissance art. Many of his writings, including the tripartite Introduction to Italian Sculpture and his magnum opus, Donatello: Sculptor, are now considered classics in the field.
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Pope-Hennessy was born in Belgravia, London, to Major-General Richard Pope-Hennessy and Dame Una Pope-Hennessy (née Birch) who was the daughter of Arthur Birch, Lieutenant-Governor of Ceylon. He was the eldest of two sons; his younger brother James Pope-Hennessy was a writer of note. He was educated at Downside School and read modern history at Balliol College, Oxford. At Oxford he was introduced by Logan Pearsall Smith (a family friend) to Kenneth Clark, who became a mentor to the young Pope-Hennessy. Upon graduation Pope-Hennessy embarked on what he referred to as his Wanderjahre, travelling in continental Europe and becoming acquainted with its great art collections, both public and private.
Pope-Hennessy served as the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1967 and 1973, and then as the director of the British Museum from 1974 until 1976. His nickname to staff was "the Pope".
Traumatised by the murder of his brother James, Pope-Hennessy left the British Museum after only three years as director. Initially he withdrew to Tuscany, but was enticed by an offer from Metropolitan Museum of Art to head its department of European painting, and moved to New York. He combined this curatorial post with a professorship at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, and enjoyed mixing with the city's high society. His apartment was known to be lavishly furnished and he is said to have owned a large porphyry table.
At 75 he retired and moved permanently to Florence, where he died five years later.
He is buried in the Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori in the southern suburb of Florence, Galluzzo (Italy).
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Ellis Waterhouse |
Slade Professor of Fine Art, Oxford University 1956 |
Succeeded by Douglas Cooper |
| Preceded by Michael Levey |
Slade Professor of Fine Art, Cambridge University 1964 |
Succeeded by Anthony Blunt |
| Cultural offices | ||
| Preceded by Trenchard Cox |
Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum 1967–73 |
Succeeded by Roy Strong |
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