Charles McClendon

Sidney and Ellen Wien Professor in the History of Art

mcclendon@brandeis.edu
781-736-2663
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for the Humanities, 209

Departments/Programs

Division of Creative Arts
Fine Arts
Italian Studies
Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Degrees

New York University, Ph.D.
New York University, M.A.
Indiana University, B.A.

Expertise

The art and architecture of western Europe in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

Profile

The research and teaching of Charles McClendon explore the history of European art and architecture from the decline and fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Italian Renaissance. His book, entitled "The Origins of Medieval Architecture: Building in Europe 600-900 A.D.," received two distinguished awards, the Otto Gründler Prize and the Haskins Medal, for the outstanding book in medieval studies in 2007 and 2008 respectively. He directed excavations of a medieval site outside Rome at the Benedictine abbey of Farfa and continues to investigate all aspects of the “Eternal City” from antiquity to the present. In addition, the Gothic cathedrals of western Europe and all aspects of the British Isles in the Middle Ages are topics of special interest. He is also interested in the commonalities and unique qualities in the attitudes and development of art and architecture among the great religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the first millennium CE.

Courses Taught

FA	30a	History of Art I: From Antiquity to the Middle Ages
FA	42b	The Age of Cathedrals
FA	141b	The Formation of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Art
FA	143a	The Art of Medieval England
FA	145a	St. Peter's and the Vatican
FA	199a	Methods and Approaches in the History of Art

Awards and Honors

Haskins Medal from the Medieval Academy of America (2008)

Otto Gruendler Book Prize from the International Congress on Medieval Studies (2007)

Guggenheim Fellowship (1985 - 1986)

J. Paul Getty Trust Grant (1985)

American Council of Learned Societies Grant-in-Aid (1982)

Center for Field Research Grant, excavations at Farfa (1981)

National Endowment for the Humanities Resarch Grant, excavations at Farfa, Italy (1980 - 1981)

Kress Foundation Grant, Excavations at Farfa (1979 - 1984)

Kress Foundation Art History Fellowship to Rome (1974 - 1976)

Scholarship

McClendon, Charles. "Religious Construction in Gaul in the Early Middle Ages." The Cambridge History of Religious Architecture of the World: The Middle Ages. Ed. Stephen Murray. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019 (forthcoming)

McClendon, Charles. "Early Medieval Architecture in Western Europe." Oxford Bibliographies in Art History (2019): <www.oxfordbibliographies.com>.

McClendon, Charles. ""The Changing Roles of Old Saint Peter's in Late Antique and Early Medieval Rome"." Chant, Liturgy and the Inheritance of Rome: Essays in Honour of Joseph Dyer. Ed. Daniel DiCenso and Rebecca Maloy. Boydell and Brewer, 2017. 33-46.

McClendon, Charles. "Book Review." Rev. of England and Rome in the Early Middle Ages, by Francesca Tinti, ed. The Medieval Review (online) 2015

McClendon, Charles. "Encounter: Richard Krautheimer." Gesta 54. (2015): 123-126.

McClendon, Charles. ""Corvey Abbey" and "Pomposa Abbey"." The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art Online. 2013.

McClendon, Charles. ""Old Saint Peter's and the Iconoclastic Controversy"." Old Saint Peter's, Rome. Ed. Rosamond McKitterick, J. Osborne, a.o.. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 214-228.

McClendon, Charles. "Book Review." Rev. of Churches in Early Medieval Ireland: Architecture, Ritual and Memory, by Tomás Ó Carragáin. Speculum vol. 87 2012: 586-588..

McClendon, Charles. "Book Review." Rev. of Compressed Meanings: The Donor’s Model in Medieval Art to around 1300, by Emanuel S. Klinkenberg. CAA.Reviews online February 2012

McClendon, Charles. "The Articulation of Sacred Space in the Synagogue and Christian Building at Dura-Europos." Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity. 1st ed. vol. Exhib. Catalogue Ed. Lisa R. Body and Gail L. Hoffman. Chestnut Hill, MA: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2011. 155-167.

McClendon, Charles. "Book Review." Rev. of SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio at Tre Fontane near Rome: History and Architecture of a Medieval Cistercian Abbey, by Joan E. Barclay. Speculum vol. 83 2008: 169-70.

McClendon,Charles. The Origins of Medieval Architecture:Building in Europe A.D. 600-900. Yale University Press, 2005.

McClendon,Charles. The Imperial Abbey of Farfa: Architectural Currents of the Early Middle Ages. Yale University Press, 1987.

McClendon,Charles. Rome and the Provinces: Studies in the Transformation of Art and Architecture in the Mediterranean World. New Haven Society of Archaeological Institute of A, 1986.