Meet Jacob Burckhardt, the thinker who invented 'culture'

Posted on 1 June 2018

CREMS director Simon Ditchfield was principal organiser of a series of events to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Swiss cultural historian, Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97)

These consisted of a public event discussing the challenges of presenting the Renaissance for 21st century audiences at the National Gallery London on Burckhardt’s 200th birthday (25 May); a celebration on 30 May at the Warburg Institute, London, whose director is the founding director of CREMS Bill Sherman, entitled: ‘Burckhardt at 200: interpreting the Renaissance past, present and future’ and finally, a two day international conference on: ’The Civilisation of the Italian Renaissance reconsidered’ held at the British Academy, London. To coincide with these events, the art critic Jonathan Jones posted the following article on the Guardian website.