Alain Erlande-Brandenburg | |
|---|---|
Erlande-Brandenburg in 2017 | |
| Born | (1937-08-02)2 August 1937 |
| Died | 6 June 2020(2020-06-06) (aged 82) |
| Alma mater | École du Louvre |
| Occupations | Art historian,museum curator |
| Notable work | The Cathedral: The Social and Architectural Dynamics of Construction;Cathedrals and Castles: Building in the Middle Ages |
Alain Erlande-Brandenburg (2 August 1937 inLuxeuil (Haute-Saône) – 6 June 2020, Paris) was a Frenchart historian and honorary general curator for heritage, a specialist onGothic andRomanesque art.
Erlande-Brandenburg was son of the physician Gilbert Brandenburg and grandson of writer and poet Albert-Jacques Brandenburg. He attended school in Marseille at the lycée Saint-Charles et Thiers, then entered theLycée Henri-IV to prepare the later study at theÉcole Nationale des Chartes, from where he graduated as an archivist-palaeographer in 1964. He also studied at theÉcole du Louvre, where he received his doctorate in 1971. Theses in 1964 at the École des Chartes (on French royal funerals and tombs) and in 1965 at the École du Louvre (on funerary statues) culminated in a dissertation[1] at the École pratique des hautes études on the royal tombs at theBasilica of Saint-Denis, published in 1975.[2]
He was chief curator of theMusée de Cluny (Musée national du Moyen Âge) since 1967, chief conservator and director of the National Museum of the Renaissance inChâteau d'Écouen from 1980 to 1987, of which he was a founder, and assistant to the director of theMusées de France from 1987 to 1991.[3] He became director of the Musée de Cluny from 1991 to 1994 and director of Museum of the Renaissance from 1999 to 2005. He was also director of studies at theÉcole pratique des hautes études (4th section) from 1974 to 2005. He taught as a professor ofmedieval architecture at theÉcole de Chaillot [fr] andmuseology at the École du Louvre. From 1991 to 2000 he was professor ofmedieval archaeology andart history at theÉcole des Chartes. From 1994 to 1998 he was director of theArchives nationales de France.[4]
Brandenburg was Inspector General of French museums in 1988 and president of theSociété française d'archéologie from 1985 to 1994. He has gained an international reputation for a number of important publications on the Gothic era, notably an enlightening work on the new conception of the history of art—La Cathédrale—published in 1989.[3]

About the author