HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2013 Program - Alumni Association ...

Robin F. Rhodes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Art, Art History, Design; Concurrent Associate
Professor, Classics
Biography
Robin Rhodes is an archaeologist and historian of classical art and architecture, as well
as principal investigator of the Greek stone architecture at the Corinth excavations of the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens. For his work in this capacity, he was awarded
a multi-year, National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research grant. His
most recent works includes the creation and curation of the traveling exhibit, “The Genesis
of Monumental Architecture in Greece: the Corinth Project”; the organization, moderation,
and editing for publication of symposia “Issues in Architectural Reconstruction and on the
Acquisition and Exhibition of Classical Antiquities”; the final preparation of a monograph, “The
Seventh Century Temple on Temple Hill in Corinth”; and a book, Architecture and Meaning
on the Athenian Acropolis (now in its third printing). He has been the NEH senior research
fellow at the American School, the Morgan Chair of Architectural Design at the University of
Louisville, and the Graham Lecturer in classical architecture for the Archaeological Institute of
America. Rhodes has taught at Yale University, Columbia University, and Bowdoin College.
Lecture
Reconstructing Ancient Corinth
Though on balance Corinth played at least as important a role as Athens in the evolution of monumental architecture in Greece,
an analytical history of the distinctive character and contributions of Corinthian architecture has never been compiled. There is
no greater gap in the study of classical Greek material culture than that represented by the architecture of this great architectural
and cultural center.
Since 1999, Rhodes has directed the project for the study and publication of the Greek stone architecture at Corinth, carried
out under the auspices of the Corinth Excavations of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and with the generous
support of the University of Notre Dame, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 1984 Foundation, and various private
individuals, including Lou and Margaret Dell’Osso. His architectural team has consisted mainly of Notre Dame students and
alumni specializing in classical archaeology, art history, architecture, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, photography, industrial
design, and graphic design. It has been a huge multi-disciplinary undertaking involving the recording and analysis of architectural
and archaeological remains, experiments in ancient technology, the creation of a major traveling exhibition of Rhodes’
reconstruction of the earliest monumental temple in Greece (the seventh century BCE temple of Zeus and Hera at Corinth), and
the writing of a monograph on that temple.
Focusing on the Corinth Project Exhibition, this lecture introduces the audience to the significance of Corinth as an architectural
and cultural center, and presents the goals, methods, and accomplishments of the Corinth Project and their significance for the
contemporary world of classical studies, as well as for the broader university community.
84 The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2013 Program
Categories
Art/Architecture