Call Number:

C0552

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

45 boxes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Rensselaer W. Lee Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1960-1980 (bulk) and 1930-1984 (inclusive)

Creator:

Lee, Rensselaer W. (Rensselaer Wright), 1898-1984

Form:

Art historians -- New Jersey -- Princeton -- 20th century., Correspondence -- 20th century, Lectures -- 20th century., and photographs -- 20th century

Abstract:

Consists of the papers of Princeton art historian Rensselaer W. Lee, including correspondence, lectures, and manuscripts and notes for two published works.

Rensselaer W. Lee graduated with honors from Princeton in 1920, and in 1926 he received a doctorate in English. He became professor of art history at Northwestern University from 1931 to 1940. Following World War II, he served on the American committee to conserve and restore European monuments and art damaged in the War. Rensselaer W. Lee was the Marquand Professor of art history at Princeton from 1954 to 1966, specializing in baroque and art theory. In 1958 he was part of a team that documented Byzantine art treasures at the sixth-century monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. He served as president of the American Academy in Rome from 1968-1971.

The collection consists of articles, lectures, correspondence, printed matter, photographs, and research material of Lee. Included are files of professional correspondence (1930-1984), papers of organizations to which he belonged, such as the American Academy in Rome (president, 1968-1971), outlines and lectures for his art history courses, and a great deal of notes, letters, and photographs of works of art relating to the pictorial illustration of the works of the Italian poets Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533) and Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) and the relationship of Renaissance painting and poetry. Manuscripts and related material for two books, Names on Trees: Ariosto in Art (1977) and U Pictura Poesis: The Humanistic Theory of Painting (1967), and a lecture, "Poetry Into Painting: Tasso and Art" (1970), are also included.

Arranged roughly as follows: index cards, notebooks, professional correspondence, organizations, research notes and photographs, correspondence/recommendations, articles, and lectures.