Full Name: Scranton, Robert
Other Names:
- Robert Lorentz Scranton
Gender: male
Date Born: 1912
Date Died: 1993
Place Born: Alliance, Stark, OH, USA
Place Died: Decatur, DeKalb, GA, USA
Home Country/ies: United States
Subject Area(s): Ancient Greek (culture or style), architecture (object genre), Greek sculpture styles, and sculpture (visual works)
Career(s): educators
Overview
University of Chicago art history professor, specialist in Greek sculpture and architecture. Scranton was the son of a physician. He graduated from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, and received his master’s degree (1934) and doctorate (1939) both from the University of Chicago. In both instances his topic was on ancient Greek fortifications. Between 1934-38, he studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He joined the faculty of Emory University in 1947. In 1961 he left to accept a position as professor of classical art and archaeology at the University of Chicago from 1961 to 1977, and chairman of its Art Department from 1969 to 1973. In 1964, Scranton published Aesthetic Aspects of Ancient Art, published by the University of Chicago Press. After retiring from the University of Chicago, he returned to Decatur, Georgia, teaching courses at Emory and Agnes Scott College in Decatur. Scranton from complications from pneumonia. His wife was Louise Capps (Scranton). Scranton was involved in archaeological exploration in Greece, Cyprus and Yugoslavia, between 1934 and 1970, using grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities and others. In Kenchreai, Greece, he discovered glass mosaics which were part of the decoration of a 3rd-or 4th-century church. The artifacts are now in a museum in Isthmia, Greece.
Selected Bibliography
[Master’s thesis:] Greek Walls. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press for The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1941, [dissertation:] The Chronology of Greek Walls. Chicago, IL: Private edition, distributed by the University of Chicago libraries, 1941; Greek Architecture. New York: G. Braziller, 1962; Mediaeval Architecture in the Central Area of Corinth. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1957; Monuments in the Lower Agora and North of the Archaic Temple. Princeton, N. J., American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1951; and Richard Stillwell, and Freeman, Sarah Elizabeth, and Askew, H. Ess. [Corinth] Architecture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, for The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1941.
Sources
[obituaries:] “Dr. Robert Scranton, former archaeologist, professor at Emory.” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, February 4, 1993, p. D6.