On March 12, 2013 The American Friends of Chartres, the Standing Committee of Medieval Studies of Harvard University and Fabien Fieschi, Consul General of France in Boston, sponsored a lecture by Paul Crossley, Professor Emeritus of the Courtauld Institute of Art of London University, on “Chartres and the Rhetoric of Gothic Cathedrals”. The event took place the Sackler Museum at Harvard University.
The lecture was introduced by Professor Jeffrey Hamburger, Chair of the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard University. His welcome was followed by a short presentation of American Friends of Chartres activities and projects and a photographic presentation by Art Sacré Photographers, Dennis Aubrey and PJ McKey of Via Lucis Photography.
Paul Crossley was educated at Downside School and Trinity College Cambridge, where he read Law and History of Art. He completed his doctorate on the history of Polish Medieval architecture at Trinity College and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. From 1971 to 1990 he was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in the History of Art at Manchester University. In 1990 he joined the teaching staff of The Courtauld Institute, first as a Senior Lecturer and then (from 2002) as a Professor. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Foreign Fellow of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.
For Professor Crossley, “the business [of Gothic cathedrals] is to persuade, charm, delight and overwhelm”. You can read this lecture in full here.
Full Lecture
