In Memoriam: Josephine von Henneberg

Born Giuseppina Amatulli in Rome, Italy, in 1929, she was known as “Pina” to her friends, according to her daughter, Krystyna von Henneberg, a writer and historian of modern Italy.

Dr. von Henneberg was lauded as a trailblazer at the University by BC Professor of Art History Stephanie C. Leone, chair of the Art, Art History, and Film Department. Held in high regard by her colleagues, she was a specialist in her field of Italian and Baroque art, with a focus on architectural history. She joined what was then BC’s Fine Arts Department in 1963, and retired in 2001.

“Only the second art historian hired by the University, she was crucial to establishing the art history major in 1970 and developing the young department through her leadership as chair from 1965-72 and 1973-76, and professor of Italian art history until her retirement,” said Leone.

“I didn't have the privilege of teaching with her, but she became a mentor as I was starting my career at BC. I admired Josephine's commitment to teaching and her intelligence, curiosity, and kindness. She always asked what I was working on and teaching, and I appreciated those conversations. Her generosity as a professor, scholar, colleague, and friend is a lasting legacy through the lecture series she founded to perpetuate the study of Italian art at Boston College.”

Upon her retirement, Dr. von Henneberg established the Annual Josephine von Henneberg Lecture in Italian Art. The endowed series annually brings to campus esteemed historians of Italian art history to share innovative scholarship with the University community.

In 2009, she and her husband, Witold K. von Henneberg—an accomplished modernist architect to whom she was married for 62 years until his death in 2014—moved from Framingham, Mass., to Davis, Cal., where their daughter resides. Dr. von Henneberg then became a professor emerita in art history at the University of California, Davis, a position she held until her death.

“My mother believed passionately in helping students engage with art, architecture, and design in their everyday lives,” according to Krystyna von Henneberg. “For her, everything was fascinating, if only one had the imagination and curiosity to really look. She sought to unravel the human sagas behind many projects that defined the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Her research aimed to humanize great works of art, and in doing so, reveal their inner spirituality. She took art appreciation out of the ivory tower, embracing artistic and technological genius wherever she found it, with wonder and delight.”

In 1988, Dr. von Henneberg discovered a cache of 150 unsigned Renaissance architectural drawings in the Vatican Library and set out to trace the origins of the exquisite late 16th century depictions of church arches, altars, and other fittings of grand public edifices. Her “treasure hunt” as she called it, took her to museum archives in Florence, London, and Paris. She successfully identified many of the works’ artists and outlined her results in her 1996 book, Architectural Drawings of the Late Italian Renaissance: The Collection of Pier Leone Ghezzi in the Vatican Library. “It is a striking collection of drawings," she told the Boston College Chronicle in 1988. "It adds to what we know of the work of many important artists.”

Longtime BC colleague Jeffery Howe, a professor emeritus of Art History who often team-taught with Dr. von Henneberg, lauded her work and tenure.

“Josephine von Henneberg shared her knowledge and enthusiasm for the arts with her students and colleagues at Boston College for four decades. In that time, she published two groundbreaking books on Italian art based on her astute archival research in Italy, and many articles. Her lectures were richly informative and compellingly delivered. She was a generous and vibrant colleague and a great friend who will be deeply missed.”

When she retired, he added, several faculty members edited a festschrift in her honor: The Plume and the Palette: Essays in Honor of Josephine von Henneberg [Pamela Berger, Jeffery Howe, and Susan A. Michalczyk, editors, 2001]. “The range of local and international contributors testified to her distinguished reputation as a scholar,” according to Howe. He also cited the admiration of her students, and a “belated thank you note” sent to Dr. von Henneberg in 1998 by her former art history student James Lehane ‘69—who went on to be the executive assistant to the president of Boston College from 1997-2006.

In it, Lehane recalled his freshman year as an inattentive student—and her justified frustration and eventual admonishment to him and his class cohort: “You people look but you don't see.”

“I have replayed your words so many times…you gave me a gift of seeing and not just looking…I have thought those words and I have said them aloud, to my kids included as they were growing and learning,” Lehane wrote in appreciation.

Dr. von Henneberg, who earned a doctorate from the University of Rome, also authored the book L'Oratorio dell'Arciconfraternita del Santissimo Crocifisso in Rome (1974), numerous articles in prominent international publications, and was the recipient of several grants. She remained active in her field as a professor emerita, and worked on architectural projects in Tuscany, Italy.

In addition to her daughter Krystyna and son-in-law Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, Dr. von Henneberg is survived by her son William von Henneberg of Paris, France,  grandchildren Arthur von Henneberg, of Paris, France, Eva and Pablo Guarnizo of Davis, Cal., and great-grandchild Norah Nickell Guarnizo, also of Davis, Cal. In addition to her husband, she was predeceased by her sister Bice Amatulli of Rome, Italy.

Among highlights of her mother’s rich personal and professional life, Krystyna von Henneberg said she served in the late 1940s as the Italian Ambassador to the United Kingdom’s personal secretary, and along with other embassy staff was invited to tea with Queen Elizabeth II. Dr. von Henneberg also served as a member of the Ladies Committee at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, was a founding member of the Danforth Museum, and was an interpreter in Italian and French for the Kennedy family, and a guest at their Cape Cod compound. She described her mother as a polyglot: fluent in Italian, French, and English, with extensive expertise in classical Greek and Latin, and a working knowledge of Polish.

The family hopes to hold a memorial service next semester at Boston College. Donations in Dr. von Henneberg’s name, they said, would be appreciated to Garden in the Woods in Framingham, where she resided with her husband from 1959-2009, or to the Audubon Society.