Prominent architectural and art historian James Ackerman died on December 31, 2016. Born in San Francisco in 1919, Professor Ackerman was Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts at Harvard until his retirement in 1990 and became a member of I Tatti’s Selection Committee during the early 1960s, remaining on the committee for nearly thirty years. Throughout his long career he published seminal works on Bramante, Michelangelo, and Palladio and explored topics from Gothic theory of architecture to naturalism in scientific illustration and computer aided design in trailblazing essays. Always curious, open to new ideas and new trends in research, he was an extraordinarily generous champion of the young. One of the most important scholars of Renaissance art and architecture, Professor Ackerman united the two areas of study in an exemplary way and will be remembered fondly by his many friends and former students among the worldwide I Tatti community.
r: James Ackerman in a typical pose during a seminar at I Tatti. l: the Fototeca during the same event.