[skip to content]

Department of the History of Art and Archaeology

Dr Crispin Branfoot

BA (Manchester), MA, PhD (London)

Overview

Crispin Branfoot
Department of the History of Art and Archaeology

Senior Lecturer in South Asian Art and Archaeology

Centre of South Asian Studies

Member, Centre of South Asian Studies

Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies

Member

Name:
Dr Crispin Branfoot
Email address:
Telephone:
020 7898 4450
Fax:
020 7898 4479
Address:
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Building:
Brunei Gallery
Office No:
B311
Office Hours:
Mondays 3-4pm (during term time)

Teaching

Programmes Convened
Courses Taught
PhD Students supervised

Research

Current Research

His main area of research is the arts of southern India from 1350 to 1800, the period encompassed by the Vijayanagara Empire and the Nayaka successor states. He has conducted fieldwork across southern India and also in Sri Lanka. The Tamil temple has been the focus of his research across a number of themes: patronage and politics; festival ritual and the planning of temples and cities; architecture and religious identity; pilgrimage and sacred landscape; iconography and artistic practice in architectural sculpture; royal portraiture in south Indian temples and courts.
He has convened two international conferences: on traditions of art in 19th and 20th century South Asia in 2002, in which both scholars and practitioners examined the textiles, temples arts and religious architecture of colonial and modern South Asia; and in 2010, on portraiture in South Asia (http://www.soas.ac.uk/events/event57887.html).
Current research includes the construction, renovation and conservation of religious architecture in south India in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This project develops his earlier work and interests in the historiography of Indian art, portraiture, colonial archaeology and temple architecture. He is also researching the photographic career of Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902) in south India and Burma in collaboration with Prof Roger Taylor (De Montfort University).

Biography

Dr Branfoot studied Ancient History and Archaeology at Manchester University, and Art & Archaeology at SOAS. He has worked in the Departments of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean Museum and Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum. From 2000 to 2005 he was Senior Research Fellow in South Asian Art and Architecture at De Montfort University in Leicester (2000-5). Before joining SOAS in 2006 he taught South Asian art at De Montfort University, the University of Oxford, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Sothebys Institute. He is Reviews Editor for the journal South Asian Studies, one of the two academic journals of the British Association for South Asian Studies (www.basas.org.uk). He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2009.

Expertise

For help in contacting SOAS academics and advice on services to business and the community, please contact SOAS Enterprise on +44(0)20 7898 4837 or email enterprise@soas.ac.uk.
For all press and media enquiries please call +44 (0)20 7898 4956/4135 or email comms@soas.ac.uk

Available for
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Press
  • Briefings
  • Special Study Programmes
  • Short Term Consultancy
  • Long Term Consultancy
Regional Expertise
  • South Asia
Country Expertise
  • India
Languages

Publications

Jump to: Authored Books | Edited Books | Book Chapters | Articles

Authored Books

Branfoot, Crispin (2007) Gods on the Move: Architecture and Ritual in the South Indian Temple. London: British Academy & Society for South Asian Studies.

Edited Books

Branfoot, Crispin and Barnes, Ruth, eds. (2006) Pilgrimage: The Sacred Journey. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.

Book Chapters

Branfoot, Crispin and Dallapiccola, Anna L. (2012) 'Bhatkal's Ramayana Panels.' In: Michell, George, (ed.), Kanara, A Land Apart: The Artistic Heritage of Coastal Karnataka. Mumbai: Marg Publications, pp. 58-65.

Branfoot, Crispin (2011) 'In a Land of Kings: donors, elites and temple sculpture.' In: Dallapiccola, Anna L. and Verghese, Anila, (eds.), South India under Vijayanagara: Art and Archaeology. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 249-262.

Branfoot, Crispin (2011) 'Minaksi's wedding: painting the sacred marriage in early modern Madurai.' In: Dallapiccola, Anna L., (ed.), Indian Painting: The Lesser Known Traditions. New Delhi: Niyogi Publications, pp. 172-189.

Branfoot, Crispin (2010) 'Iconography and Images: Art.' In: Jacobsen, Knut, (ed.), Brill Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, Vol. II: Texts, Rituals, Arts, Concepts. Leiden: E.J. Brill, pp. 536-550.

Branfoot, Crispin (2007) 'South Asia and the Himalayas.' In: Contadini , Anna, (ed.), Objects of Instruction: Treasures of the School of Oriental and African Studies. London: SOAS, pp. 68-74.

Branfoot, Crispin (2007) 'Regional Pasts, Imperial Present: architecture and memory in Vijayanagara-period Karnataka.' In: Hardy, Adam, (ed.), The Temple in South Asia. London: British Association for South Asian Studies, pp. 105-125.

Branfoot, Crispin (2006) 'Where on Earth is South Asia? Indian art and UK universities.' In: Tatlock, Janet, (ed.), 21st Century Art History - Global Reception. Brighton: Association of Art Historians, pp. 11-15.

Branfoot, Crispin (2006) 'Pilgrimage in South Asia: Crossing Boundaries of Space and Faith.' In: Branfoot, Crispin and Barnes, Ruth, (eds.), Pilgrimage: The Sacred Journey. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, pp. 44-79.

Branfoot, Crispin and Allan, James W. (2006) 'Travellers of Faith: Pilgrim Tales.' In: Branfoot, Crispin and Barnes , Ruth, (eds.), Pilgrimage: The Sacred Journey. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, pp. 96-115.

Branfoot, Crispin (1999) 'Tiruchirappalli and the Sacred Island of Srirangam.' In: Michell, George, (ed.), Eternal Kaveri: Historical Sites Along South India's Greatest River. Bombay: Marg Publications, pp. 75-88.

Branfoot, Crispin 'Making Space for the Sacred: Hindu Art and Material Religion.' In: Oddie, Geoffrey, (ed.), The Sage Handbook of Hinduism in Asia. New Delhi: Sage. (In Press)

Branfoot, Crispin 'Later Hindu architecture in the Deccan and south India.' In: Etlin, Richard, (ed.), The Cambridge History of World Religious Architecture. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press. (Forthcoming)

Branfoot, Crispin 'Pilgrimage and sacred geography.' In: Etlin, Richard, (ed.), The Cambridge History of World Religious Architecture. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press. (Forthcoming)

Articles

Branfoot, Crispin (2013) 'Remaking the past: Tamil sacred landscape and temple renovations.' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 76 (1). pp. 1-27.

Branfoot, Crispin (2008) 'Imperial Frontiers: Building Sacred Space in Sixteenth-century South India.' The Art Bulletin, 90 (2). pp. 171-194.

Branfoot, Crispin (2007) ' Painting Processions: a Company album from south India.' Orientations, 38 (8). pp. 73-78.

Branfoot, Crispin (2006) 'Processions and Presence: Bronze Sculptures from the Temples of Southern India.' Arts of Asia, 36 (5).

Branfoot, Crispin and Dallapiccola, Anna (2005) 'Temple architecture in Bhatkal and the Ramayana tradition in coastal Karnataka.' Artibus Asiae, 65 (2). pp. 253-308.

Branfoot, Crispin (2004) 'The Madurai Nayakas and the Skanda temple at Tirupparankundram.' Ars Orientalis, 33 . pp. 146-179.

Branfoot, Crispin (2002) '‘Expanding Form’: The Architectural Sculpture of the South Indian Temple c.1500-1700.' Artibus Asiae, 62 (2). pp. 189-245.

Branfoot, Crispin (2002) 'Bhima and Purusamirukam in the Nayaka-period Sculpture of Tamilnadu.' South Asian Studies, 18 . pp. 77-82.

Branfoot, Crispin (2001) 'Mangammal of Madurai and South Indian Portraiture.' East and West, 51 (3-4). pp. 369-377.

Branfoot, Crispin (2001) 'Tirumala Nayaka's 'New Hall' and the European Study of the South Indian Temple.' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 11 (2). pp. 191-218.

Branfoot, Crispin (2000) 'Royal Portrait Sculpture in the South Indian Temple.' South Asian Studies, 16 . pp. 11-36.

Branfoot, Crispin (2000) 'Approaching the Temple in Nayaka-period Madurai: the Kutal Alakar temple.' Artibus Asiae, 60 (2). pp. 197-221.

Branfoot, Crispin (1995) 'Burmese Nats: Wooden Sculpture from the Richard C. Temple Collection.' Eastern Art Report, 4 (2). pp. 34-36.

This list was generated on Sat Feb 2 02:16:19 2013 GMT.