Vincent Scully was perhaps the most revered professor of art and architecture in the United States.
While he had more than 20 books, countless articles, and a series of public television programs to his name, it was arguably his course lectures at Yale University that made him, in the words of the renowned architect Philip Johnson, “the most influential architecture teacher ever.” For more than six decades, from 1947 to 2008, his passionate introductory lectures on the history of art and architecture packed lecture halls to repeated ovations, and inspired generations of students, several of whom have gone on to become prominent architects and historians.
Working with the Checkerboard Film Foundation, whose film “Vincent Scully: An Art Historian Among Architects” inspired this project, our mission is to honor and preserve Vincent Scully’s legacy, and also to make available to the public his captured lectures, which have transfixed and inspired so many.
The great Vincent Scully on the incomparable Vietnam Memorial designed by Maya Lin, one of his students. Do I detect that Scully himself gets choked up at the end when describing the memorial?
Michelangelo is so damn popular because his work is in the Vatican; go to Staglieno cemetery in Genoa and see that he was really just an average sculptor. Plenty in Italy were his equal and many were better.
Thank you. It truly is about some enduring transcendence and presence that is bigger than ourselves. I have enjoyed this channel and learned much. Best regards
Thanks for this. It’s a treasure- what he has to say about DC and how the space is experienced; about Sullivan and metalwork. Scully talks with such ease and humanity not to mention erudition. A model to work toward
I was in his Art History class my sophomore year at Yale. His lecture were a joy. He was enthusiastic, brilliant, informative. Greek temples brought forth vivid descriptions of how the temples related to the earth and heavens and so, how they served humanity. My lifelong love for art really began there in 1960.
I am forklift driver from Poland having really good time watching this lecture. Excellent! Buy 2500 views? Few likes? What is going on? Empty world. Full of idiots, but empty.
And this is a classical example of how some men of a certain generation became university professors - without even speaking proper French or Latin. His ideas and comments on the work of the kings are almost funny from a modern day perspective. No professor would actually admire kings or their gardens in 2021 - leave alone forget to speak about kings as what they were - terribly tyrants! Classic gardens are an expression of absolutist power. How could this be beautiful? It's just a boring domination over nature and people. How many people died there during the construction work? How would sb dare nowadays to not comment on the racist statues of black people in the park? How could you forget about the importance of the French Revolution? .. This lecture really misses everything.
Thank you René for keeping the images in focus. I gotta say, I miss those old projectors and plastic print sheets, they were always malfunctioning and needed adjustments, things just work too well these days, makes you take it all for granted.
The narrative cross referencing to explain Michelangelo's mindset is brilliant. Proof positive that history doesn't automatically or necessarily need to repeat itself in it's worst aspects. More people need to immerse themselves. Love how old art historians mimic the lives of those fine artists who worked until their death.
