Envisioning Cluny: Kenneth Conant and Representations of Medieval Architecture, 1872–2025

Over the past century, our knowledge about medieval buildings, the purposes to which this knowledge has been applied, and the technologies which we have used to visualize them, have evolved constantly. This exhibition explores the rich tradition of medieval architectural scholarship as exemplified by the career of Kenneth Conant (1894-1984), who received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University and taught architectural history there from 1920 to 1954. The first section chronicles Conant’s architectural training and scholarly formation; the second, Conant’s work on the eleventh- and twelfth-century abbey church of Cluny, France (dubbed by Conant “Cluny III”); the third, eight plaster casts of capitals from Cluny III, which Conant commissioned in 1929 and which were displayed in the Fogg Art Museum until 1936; and the last, recently-created 3D digital models of the Cluny capital casts that allow students and scholars to engage with them in new and previously unimagined ways.

Curated by Christine Smith, Robert C. and Marion K. Weinberg Professor of Architectural History at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, with the collaboration of Matthew Cook (Digital Scholarship Programs Manager, Widener Library), Ines Zalduendo (Special Collections Archivist, Frances Loeb Library), and Clayton Scoble (Media Lab Director, Lamont Library).