author
Gisela M. A. (Gisela Marie Augusta) Richter
1882–1972
A pioneering curator and classical art scholar, she helped shape the study of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than four decades. Her writing made ancient sculpture, pottery, and portraiture more accessible to both specialists and general readers.
1 Audiobook
The Craft of Athenian Pottery An Investigation of the Technique of Black-Figured and Red-Figured Athenian Vases
by Gisela M. A. (Gisela Marie Augusta) Richter
About the author
Born in London in 1882, she studied at Girton College, Cambridge, and moved to the United States in 1905. Soon after arriving, she joined the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where her work on Greek vases launched a long career in the museum's Department of Greek and Roman Art.
Over the years, she rose from assistant to curator of Greek and Roman art, and later served as honorary curator. She became widely respected for her scholarship on ancient sculpture, portraiture, furniture, and ceramics, and was known as one of the most influential classical art historians of her time.
She continued writing and contributing to the field well into later life, leaving behind a large body of books and articles as well as a memoir. She died in Rome in 1972, remembered for combining close visual study with a gift for explaining the ancient world clearly.