Full Name: Casson, Stanley
Gender: male
Date Born: 1889
Date Died: 1944
Place Born: England, UK
Place Died: Greece [World War II casualty, specific location not recorded]
Home Country/ies: United Kingdom
Subject Area(s): Ancient Greek (culture or style), Antique, the, Classical, Greek sculpture styles, Modern (style or period), and sculpture (visual works)
Overview
Historian of modern sculpture and ancient Greece; studied effect of technique upon style in Greek art. Casson attended Merchant Taylors School and Lincoln and St. John’s College, Oxford, initially studying anthropology before changing to archaeology. His major area was Hellenism. He was appointed assistant director of the British School in Athens in 1919, which he held until 1922. As editor of the Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum, the set appeared the same year. In 1927 he was made a reader at Oxford University. He was Special Lecturer in Art, Bristol University in 1931. A scholar of historical geography, particularly in Macedonia, he turned his interests to art, publishing his important Technique of Early Greek Sculpture in 1933. His interest in sculpture turned to contemporary artists as well. Casson was a visiting Professor at Bowdin College, ME, 1933-34. He volunteered for British army during World War II and achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel before he was killed in action.
Selected Bibliography
The Technique of Early Greek Sculpture. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1933; Some Modern Sculptors. London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1928; XXth Century Sculptors. London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1930; and Dickins, Guy, and, Nicholson, Dorothy L. Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: The University Press, 1912-1921.
Sources
Kleinbauer, W. Eugene. Research Guide to the History of Western Art. Sources of Information in the Humanities, no. 2. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982, p. 42 ; Medwid, Linda M. The Makers of Classical Archaeology: A Reference Work. New York: Humanity Books, 2000 pp. 55-56; Ridgway, David. “Casson, Stanley.” Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. Nancy Thomson de Grummond, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996, vol. 1, p. 253.
Archives
- Stanley Casson [collated], National Archives (UK). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F65208.
Contributors: Emily Crockett and Lee Sorensen