Arts

23 Nov 09

Sir John Boardman, Oxford University Emeritus Lincoln Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, has been awarded the inaugural Onassis International Prize in Humanities, which recognises international distinction in promoting Greek cultural heritage in the fields of Archaeology, History and Literature.

He will travel to the Institute of France in Paris to receive his award on December 14, which he has been given for his ‘brilliant career of more than 50 years of continuous efforts dedicated to the worldwide diffusion of the ancient Greek heritage.’ Sir John continues in retirement to contribute to research in the Faculty of Classics’ Beazley Archive, particularly on sculpture and gems.

He is one of two laureates to receive this honour – he receives it alongside Jacques-Yves Empereur, a French archaeologist. Every two years, two international prizes will be given out, rotating between Humanities and Law and will include a 250,000 Euro award.

Anthonis Papadimitriou, president of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, said of Sir John: 'Alongside the voluminous publications on Greek art and especially vase-painting and sculpture from the proto-hellenique period to the end of the classical times that constitute an irreplaceable reference for specialists of these periods, your lifelong devotion to the completion of the Beazley pottery database is a unique contribution to archaeology.'

He added that Sir John’s approach to research on the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations as well as his ‘exhaustive research’ on the ancient Greek Diaspora in south eastern Europe and Asia Minor, ‘stand as proof of your extended and profound knowledge of the ancient world’. He said Sir John’s ‘vivid and creative personality is a prototype for young archaeologists’. 

Sir John Boardman said: 'It is an exceptional honour and pleasure to be rewarded in this way by a Foundation based in Greece, the country where I have spent several happy years, and whose history and art have been my object of study for so long.

'Yet in some ways it is even more extraordinary for me that I should be rewarded for doing what I have always enjoyed doing, what I have always chosen to do, and what I find it quite impossible to abandon, even for the pleasures of retirement.'

In 1955 Sir John took up the post of Assistant Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum and it is now 50 years since he was appointed Reader in Classical Archaeology at Oxford. He was made Lincoln Professor Classical Art and Archaeology in 1978, knighted in 1989 and retired in 1994. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, from whom he received the Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies in 1995.

His publications focus primarily on the art and architecture of ancient Greece, and in particular on sculpture, engraved gems, and vase-painting.

The Beazley Archive is a research centre of the Faculty of Classics. The original archive of Sir John Beazley, Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art from 1925 until 1956, was purchased for the faculty in 1965. On his death in 1970 it was brought to the Ashmolean Museum. Within a few years the personal archive of material relating to the study of classical archaeology and art was transformed into a research resource for students and scholars.