Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule III (August 10, 1925 – November 27, 2008) was an American scholar of ancient art and curator of classical art at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

, from 1957 to 1996. He was also well known as a

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics, numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin , genitive of ). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coi ...

. He also used the pseudonyms Wentworth Bunsen, Isao Tsukinabe and Northwold Nuffler.

Biography

He was born in

Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange (known simply as Orange) is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 34,447, an increase o ...

, on August 10, 1925, to Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule II. Vermeule entered

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1943, in the same year as his father's suicide and the continued escalation of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

prompted him to join the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. Vermeule married the archaeologist Emily Dickinson Townsend in 1957. Emily Vermeule was a classical scholar and the Doris Zemurray Stone Professor at

. He is the father of Emily Dickinson Blake "Blakey" Vermeule, a professor of English at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and

Adrian Vermeule Cornelius Adrian Comstock Vermeule (, born May 2, 1968) is an American legal scholar who is the Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. An expert on constitutional and administrative law, since 2016 he has voiced sup ...

, a law professor at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. In the Army he studied Japanese and was sent to the Pacific Theater, where he stayed in Japan after the war as a language expert, attaining the rank of captain. He completed his A.B. at

in 1947 and his A.M. in 1951 under George M.A. Hanfmann. He earned his Ph.D. at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1953. From 1953 to 1955 he taught fine arts at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. From there he shifted to

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

as Professor of archaeology until 1957 when was appointed curator of classical collections for the

. He married a Bryn Mawr student, Emily Townsend that same year. While at the Museum, Vermeule was also a Lecturer in fine arts at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

. He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1969. Vermeule assumed the directorship of the Museum of Fine Arts in the 1970s. His term as curator was marked by the purchase of two large vases portraying the fall of

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

and the death of

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

, a Roman portrait of an old man, and a Minoan gold double ax. He trained several curators, including

Marion True Marion True (born November 5, 1948) was the former curator of antiquities for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. True was indicted on April 1, 2005, by an Italian court, on criminal charges accusing her of participating in a con ...

of the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

and Carlos Picon. He died at age 83 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts, on November 27, 2008, of the complications from a stroke.

References

Works

*(with Norman Jacobs) ''Japanese Coinage'', Numismatic Review, New York, 1953. *'Modern Japanese and Chinese coins in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

(part I)', ''Numismatic Chronicle'', 1954, 186-96. 'Part II', ''Numismatic Chronicle'', 1955, 215-221. *''A Bibliography of Applied Numismatics in the Fields of Greek and Roman Archaeology and the Fine Arts''. (London, 1956). * s Isao Tsukinabe''Old Bodrum''. Somerset Society, 1964. *''European Art and the Classical Past''. (Cambridge, 1964). *''Numismatic Art in America''. (Cambridge, 1971). * with Neuerburg, Norman, and Helen Lattimore. ''Catalogue of the Ancient Art in the J. Paul Getty Museum: the Larger Statuary, Wall Paintings and Mosaics''. (Malibu, 1973). *''Greek Sculpture and Roman Taste: the Purpose and Setting of Graeco-Roman Art in Italy and the Greek Imperial East''. (Ann Arbor, 1977). *''The Cult Images of Imperial Rome''. (Rome, 1987). *''Art and Archaeology of Antiquity''. 4 vols. London: Pindar Press, 2001-2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vermeule, Cornelius Clarkson, III 1925 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American archaeologists Alumni of the University of London American art curators American numismatists Bryn Mawr College faculty Harvard University alumni Historians from New Jersey Military personnel from Essex County, New Jersey People from Orange, New Jersey United States Army officers University of Michigan faculty Vermeule family

Biography

References

Further reading

Works