biography

Byzantinist and baroque scholar, architectural historian; Director of Institute of Fine Art, New York University. Krautheimer, born on July 6th, 1897 in Fürth (Germany), was the son of Nathan Krautheimer (1854-1910) and Martha Landman (1875-1967). His cousin was Ernst Kitzinger (1912-2003) who also became an eminent medievalist art historian. In the First World War Krautheimer saw serious war service (1916-1918). Between 1919-1923 he studied initially at the university in Jura and then successively at the universities in Munich, Berlin, and Marburg. His teachers included Heinrich Wölfflin (1864-1945), Adolph Goldschmidt (1863-1944) and Werner Weisbach (1873-1953). He briefly worked on the state inventory of Churches for Erfurt. In 1924 he married Trude Krautheimer (1902-1987) who subsequently also studied art history and became a noted scholar and collector herself. His dissertation was completed in Halle under Paul Frankl (1878-1962) in 1925 with the title Die Kirchen der Bettelorden in Deutschland (1240-1340). Frankl remained a strong influence to Krautheimer's work throughout his life. In 1927 Krautheimer completed his habilitation under Richard Hamann (1879-1961) in Marburg In 1928 and obtained a teaching position as Privatdozent. The same year, while researching at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, Krautheimer developed the idea for a handbook of Roman churches with a colleague, Rudolf Wittkower (1901-1971); this later to became the Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae. The first volume was published in 1937. The set of five volumes, however, would not be completed until 1980. In 1933 the Krautheimers fled Nazi persecution, leaving Germany for good. Between 1933-1935 Krautheimer still worked in Rome, but the ever-declining political situation for Jews in Axis-alliance countries compelled him and his wife to emigrate to the United States. Krautheimer initially found a position at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. At his request, in 1937 Louisville hired another fleeing art historian, Krautheimer's friend from school days, Justus Bier (1899-1990). The same year Krautheimer moved to Vassar College at the request of Vassar's Art Department chair, Agnes Rindge Claflin (1900-1977). With the United State's entrance into the Second World War, Krautheimer and his wife became naturalized citizens and Richard volunteered for duty as a senior research analyst for the Office of Strategic Services for the years 1942-1944. Here he analyzed aerial photographs of Rome to assist in the protection of historic buildings during bombing. While still at Vassar, he taught (with lecturer status) at New York University (1938-1949). He moved to NYU permanently in 1952 as the Jayne Wrightsman Professor of Fine Arts. In 1971 Krautheimer retired from NYU as Samuel F. B. Morse Professor Emeritus and returned to Rome. Wolfgang Lotz (1912-1981), friend and fellow architectural historian, offered him a residence at the Bibliotheca Hertziana. In April 1994 he received the honorific title civis romanus. Krautheimer died on November 1st, 1994 at 97 at the Palazzo Zuccari. He is buried in the non-catholic cemetery in Rome with his wife. (Information mainly based on the article in the Dictionary of Art Historians)