Richard Brilliant

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Richard Brilliant
Born (1929-11-20) November 20, 1929 (age 94)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation
  • Art historian
  • university professor
  • writer
NationalityAmerican
EducationBoston Latin School
Yale College (BA, MA, PhD)
Harvard Law School (LLB)
Spouse
Eleanor Luria
​
(m. 1952)​
Children4

Richard Brilliant (born in Boston, November 20, 1929[1]) is an American art historian, university professor, and writer whose work combines a specialist knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman art with overarching themes in the history and theory of art (e.g. semiotics, portraiture, narrative, and historiography). As noted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he “transformed the field of classical art, opening it up to new critical methods of historical and stylistic analysis.”[2] His publications have been considered landmarks in the field, and have raised the reputation of Roman art, especially that of the later period, which had been disparaged by earlier nineteenth and twentieth pro-Greek critics and scholars. Encouraged by his broad vision and scope of interests, his students have pursued significant careers as academics, researchers, and practitioners in the field of classical art history.

Early life and education

Brilliant attended

Massachusetts Bar the same year. Brilliant then returned to Yale to pursue graduate studies with a range of scholars in archaeology and art history, including Harald Ingholt, Vincent Scully, and Kurt Weitzmann. He was awarded an M.A. in 1956 and a Ph.D. in 1960. Brilliant’s dissertation[3] was retitled as Gesture and Rank in Roman Art: The Use of Gestures to Denote Status in Roman Sculpture and Coinage and published in 1963.[4]

Career

Brilliant began his teaching career at the

Professor Emeritus
, but continued teaching, including the Columbia undergraduate course on Contemporary Civilization and he was appointed Senior Scholar by Columbia (2010–2012).

From 1990 to 1996, Brilliant served as Editor-in-Chief of

New York Historical Society. He also served as consultant to various media productions, and appeared on screen in the Alexandria Production program Rome: Power and Glory for the Discovery Channel
, December 1997.

Honors and awards

Brilliant was awarded a

Fulbright scholarship for study in Italy (1957–1959) which allowed him to complete his dissertation. He subsequently received a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (1960–1962), resulting in a definitive published study of the Arch of Septimius Severus. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and returned to Italy to immerse himself in other aspects of Roman and Greek art. In 1972–1973 he was a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities
in Rome.

Brilliant received Great Teacher awards from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and the Alexander Hamilton Medal from Columbia (1994). He was named as Distinguished Scholar for 2005 by the College Art Association.[1] In 2005 he was also elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[2]

Personal life

In 1952, just after graduating from Yale College, Brilliant married Eleanor Luria (Smith 1952),[7] who, after earning advanced degrees in social work and social policy, became a Professor at Rutgers University (New Brunswick), and a distinguished scholar in the field of nonprofit studies. They have four children, twelve grand-children, and seven great-grand children.

Selected bibliography

  • Gesture and Rank in Roman Art: The Use of Gestures to Denote Status in Roman Sculpture and Coinage (Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, 1963)
  • The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum (American Academy in Rome, 1967)
  • Arts of the Ancient Greeks (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973). ISBN 9780070078505
  • Roman Art from the Republic to Constantine (London: Phaidon, 1974). ISBN 9780714815961
  • Pompeii A.D. 79: The Treasure of Rediscovery (New York: C.N. Potter, 1979). ISBN 0517538598
  • Visual Narratives: Storytelling in Etruscan and Roman Art (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984). ISBN 9780801415586
  • Portraiture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991). ISBN 067469175X
  • Commentaries on Roman Art: Selected Studies (London: Pindar Press, 1994) ISBN 9780907132745
  • My Laocoon: Alternative Claims in the Interpretation of Artworks California Studies in the History of Art. Discovery series 8. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). ISBN 9780520216822
  • Un Americano a Roma: Riflessioni sull-arte Romana (Rome: Di Renzo, 2000). ISBN 9788883230165
  • Death—From Dust to Destiny (London: Reaktion, 2017). ISBN 9781780237251

References

  1. ^ a b "Annual Conference 2005 Distinguished Scholar Session: Richard Brilliant". College Art Association. January 2005.
  2. ^ a b "Richard Brilliant". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. September 13, 2023.
  3. ^ Richard Brilliant. "Hands Up--The Use Of Gestures To Denote Status In Roman Sculpture And Numismatics." Ph.D. dissertation--Yale University, 1960. 2 volumes. https://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/14959962
  4. ^ Brilliant, Richard. Gesture and Rank in Roman Art: The Use of Gestures to Denote Status in Roman Sculpture and Coinage. (Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, volume 14.) New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1963.
  5. ^ "Richard Brilliant | Department of Art History & Archaeology | Columbia University". arthistory.columbia.edu.
  6. ISBN 9780837963143
    .
  7. ^ Bachrach, Bradford (June 25, 1951). "Miss Luria, Bride of Yale Alumnus, Married at New Rochelle Home to Richard Brilliant, Who Will Study Law at Harvard". New York Times.

External links

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