Campus & Community

Ackerman awarded Golden Lion for contributions to architecture

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The 2008 Venice Biennale award committee has conferred on James S. Ackerman, the Arthur Kingsley Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus at Harvard University, its prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The award citation praised Ackerman’s contributions to architecture, calling him “the doyen of the international community of historians of Renaissance architecture,” adding, “He is one of the scholars to have created the modern history of architecture, founded on a systematic approach and making use of a critical examination of all written and visual sources.”

As an author, Ackerman is perhaps best known for his influential book “Palladio” (1966), which investigates the impact of this historic figure. Ackerman is a member of the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura in Vicenza, and the Ateneo Veneto end of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.