Richard Brilliant

Richard Brilliant (November 20, 1929 – August 8, 2024) was an American art historian, academic, and writer whose work combines a specialist knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman art with overarching themes in the history and theory of art (e.g. semiotics, portraiture, narrative, and historiography). As noted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he “transformed the field of classical art, opening it up to new critical methods of historical and stylistic analysis.” His publications have been considered landmarks in the field, and have raised the reputation of Roman art, especially that of the later period, which had been disparaged by earlier nineteenth and twentieth pro-Greek critics and scholars. Encouraged by his broad vision and scope of interests, his students have pursued significant careers as academics, researchers, and practitioners in the field of classical art history.

Richard Brilliant
Born	(1929-11-20)November 20, 1929 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	August 8, 2024(2024-08-08) (aged 94) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Art historian university professor writer
Nationality	American
Education	Boston Latin School Yale College (BA, MA, PhD) Harvard Law School (LLB)
Spouse	Eleanor Luria ​ (m. 1952)​
Children	4

Richard Brilliant, Historian of ancient art

Early life and education

Brilliant was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 20, 1929. He attended Boston Latin School (1941–1947) and graduated from Yale College in 1951 with a B.A. in classical civilization. Immediately after, he attended Harvard Law School, receiving his LL.B. in 1954. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar the same year. Brilliant then returned to Yale to pursue graduate studies with a range of scholars in archaeology and art history, including Harald Ingholt, Vincent Scully, and Kurt Weitzmann. He was awarded an M.A. in 1956 and a Ph.D. in 1960. Brilliant’s dissertation was retitled as Gesture and Rank in Roman Art: The Use of Gestures to Denote Status in Roman Sculpture and Coinage and published in 1963.

Career

Brilliant began his teaching career at the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. He became a full professor in 1969, and served as Chairman of the Art History Department. He joined the faculty at Columbia University in 1970 as Professor of Art History and Archaeology and later was named the Anna S. Garbedian Professor in the Humanities. In the Spring term of 1971 Brilliant taught courses at the University of Pittsburgh as Mellon Visiting Professor. He was a visiting professor at Princeton University in 1986. He was a visiting professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, in 1974, 1980, and 1988, and also served as an adjunct professor at the Graduate Institute of Emory University from June 1992 to August 1993. In March 2002, an international colloquium "The Art of Rome: Shifting Boundaries, Evolving Definitions," celebrated his accomplishments and was attended by scores of former students and colleagues. He retired from full-time teaching in 2004, and became Professor Emeritus, but continued teaching, including the Columbia undergraduate course on Contemporary Civilization and he was appointed Senior Scholar by Columbia (2010–2012).

From 1990 to 1996, Brilliant served as Editor-in-Chief of The Art Bulletin, the American academic journal of art history published by the College Art Association in the United States. Brilliant was also the Director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University during its formative years (1996–2000). Brilliant served on the Governing Board of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University for many years, and as its Chairman (1982–1984). He was a long-term member of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1974–2010) In addition to serving on the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA) (1997–2000), Brilliant was a consultant for exhibitions at the Jewish Museum in New York City and the Museum of the New York Historical Society. He also served as consultant to various media productions, and appeared on screen in the Alexandria Production program Rome: Power and Glory for the Discovery Channel, December 1997.

Honors and awards

Brilliant was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for study in Italy (1957–1959) which allowed him to complete his dissertation. He subsequently received a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (1960–1962), resulting in a definitive published study of the Arch of Septimius Severus. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and returned to Italy to immerse himself in other aspects of Roman and Greek art. In 1972–1973 he was a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Rome.

Brilliant received Great Teacher awards from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and the Alexander Hamilton Medal from Columbia (1994). He was named as Distinguished Scholar for 2005 by the College Art Association. In 2005 he was also elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Personal life and death

In 1951, just after graduating from Yale College, Brilliant married Eleanor Luria (Smith 1952), who, after earning advanced degrees in social work and social policy, became a professor at Rutgers University (New Brunswick), and a distinguished scholar in the field of nonprofit studies. They have four children, twelve grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Brilliant died in New York City on August 8, 2024, at the age of 94.

Selected bibliography

• Gesture and Rank in Roman Art: The Use of Gestures to Denote Status in Roman Sculpture and Coinage (Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, 1963)
• The Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum (American Academy in Rome, 1967)
• Arts of the Ancient Greeks (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973). ISBN 9780070078505
• Roman Art from the Republic to Constantine (London: Phaidon, 1974). ISBN 9780714815961
• Pompeii A.D. 79: The Treasure of Rediscovery (New York: C.N. Potter, 1979). ISBN 0517538598
• Visual Narratives: Storytelling in Etruscan and Roman Art (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984). ISBN 9780801415586
• Portraiture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991). ISBN 067469175X
• Commentaries on Roman Art: Selected Studies (London: Pindar Press, 1994) ISBN 9780907132745
• My Laocoon: Alternative Claims in the Interpretation of Artworks California Studies in the History of Art. Discovery series 8. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). ISBN 9780520216822
• Un Americano a Roma: Riflessioni sull-arte Romana (Rome: Di Renzo, 2000). ISBN 9788883230165
• Death—From Dust to Destiny (London: Reaktion, 2017). ISBN 9781780237251

External links

• Richard Brilliant at IMDb
• Richard Brilliant at the Department of Art and Archaeology at Columbia University
• Entry for Brilliant in the Duke University Dictionary of Art Historians