Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Curator · Excavator · Cataloguer · Scholar

Cornelius C. Vermeule III

fl. 1958–1983 · United States

Boston classical-art curator who signed the preface of the MFA's 1972 Cypriot catalogue, worked on two Salamis sculpture volumes and co-directed the last Toumba tou Skourou dig.

Biography

In 1972 Cornelius C. Vermeule III signed, as Curator of Classical Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the preface to Art of Ancient Cyprus, a catalogue issued a hundred years after the museum bought most of its Cypriot pieces from General Cesnola by subscription on 15 May 1872. The preface adds that the Egypt Exploration Fund gave further pieces in 1886 and 1888. Ernest Kahn and his wife underwrote the volume, and it is dedicated to the staff of the Department of Antiquities and the Cyprus Museum7.

His other Cyprus work was on sculpture. Vassos Karageorghis published Sculptures from Salamis I in 1964 with Vermeule's collaboration, and Vermeule is co-author of volume II in 19668,9. In 1974 he published an article on Cypriot sculpture of the late Archaic and early Classical periods, and in 1976 Greek and Roman Cyprus, as well as, with M. B. Comstock, Sculpture in Stone, which Karageorghis cites for marble statuettes in Boston10,12,13. In 1982 he dated the marble lion from Kato Paphos to just after 325 BCE from a photograph sent to him by the Department of Antiquities14.

He also worked in the field. The Harvard expedition at Toumba tou Skourou, near Morphou, opened in 1971 under Emily Vermeule; Kyriakos Nicolaou names both Vermeules as heading the 1972 season, and the final season of 1973 was directed by both, with the Museum of Fine Arts as a partner3,4.

Life and work

  1. 1964
    Karageorghis's Sculptures from Salamis I is stated to be 'with the collaboration of Cornelius C. Vermeule'; the second volume (1966) is by Karageorghis and Vermeule, publishing the marble sculptures from Salamis.

    NicosiaKarageorghis 1969

  2. 1972
    Signed as curator the preface of Art of Ancient Cyprus (MFA Boston): works mostly bought by subscription from General L. P. di Cesnola on 15 May 1872, the first major acquisition of the new museum; catalogue underwritten by Dr and Mrs Ernest Kahn and dedicated to the Department of Antiquities and the Cyprus Museum staff.

    BostonVermeule 1972

  3. 1972
    With Emily Vermeule, headed the second season of the Harvard University expedition at Toumba tou Skourou (Nicolaou's AJN note names both).

    MorphouNicolaou 1973

  4. 1973
    Co-directed with Emily Vermeule the final (third) season of the Harvard University and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston mission at Toumba tou Skourou; the Chronique ascribes the direction to both.

    MorphouKarageorghis 1974Nicolaou 1975

  5. 1976
    Published Greek and Roman Cyprus (Boston) and, with M. B. Comstock, Sculpture in Stone (1976, MFA); Karageorghis's Chronique for 1977 cites both for a draped Aphrodite-with-Eros type and for marble statuettes in Boston.

    BostonKarageorghis 1978

  6. 1982
    On a photograph sent by the Department, dated the Kato Paphos marble lion (Cyprus Museum reg. 2513) as Attic work just after 325 BCE, by the 'Master of Piraeus Museum no. 285'.

    Kato PaphosKarageorghis 1983

Connections

7 people
Ernest KahnEmily T. VermeuleVassos KarageorghisLuigi Palma di CesnolaMary ComstockBenjamin KentJuliet ShelmerdineCornelius C. Vermeule III
Sales & giftsFieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Cypriot antiquities of the MFA (Cesnola purchase 1872 and later gifts), catalogued as Art of Ancient Cyprus

    Museum of Fine Arts, Boston1872Vermeule 1972

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.V. Karageorghis (1972). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1971”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 96.
  2. 2.V. Karageorghis (1973). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 97.
  3. 3.V. Karageorghis (1974). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1973”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 98.
  4. 4.Kyriakos Nicolaou (1973). “Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1972”. American Journal of Archaeology 77, 425-433.
  5. 5.Kyriakos Nicolaou (1975). “Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1973”. American Journal of Archaeology 79, 125-134. Online
  6. 6.K. Nicolaou (1976). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1969-76”. Archaeological Reports 22.
  7. 7.Cornelius Vermeule (1972). Art of Ancient Cyprus. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
  8. 8.V. Karageorghis (1969). Salamis in Cyprus: Homeric, Hellenistic and Roman. London, Thames and Hudson.
  9. 9.V. Karageorghis, C. C. Vermeule (1966). Sculptures from Salamis II. Nicosia, Department of Antiquities.
  10. 10.C. Vermeule (1976). Greek and Roman Cyprus: Art from Classical through Late Antique Times. Boston.
  11. 11.M. B. Comstock, C. C. Vermeule (1976). Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston.
  12. 12.C. Vermeule (1974). “Cypriote sculpture, the late Archaic and early Classical Periods: towards a more precise understanding”. American Journal of Archaeology 78, 287-290.
  13. 13.V. Karageorghis (1978). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1977”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 102.
  14. 14.V. Karageorghis (1983). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1982”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 107.
  15. 15.H. Ingholt. “A Colossal Head from Memphis, Severan or Augustan?”. Online