Hjalmar Torp was born on 14 April 1924 in Oslo. Throughout his long research career he distinguished himself as one of Norway's most significant and internationally recognised art historians. He made fundamental research contributions to the understanding of the visual culture of the Mediterranean countries in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. His extensive scholarly output, published in five languages (English, Italian, French, German and Norwegian), ranges from Byzantine mosaics in Greece, Longobard architecture and painting in Italy to Coptic sculpture in Egypt, to name but a few of his research topics. Hundreds of students will remember him as an outstanding and inspiring lecturer.
At the centre of Hjalmar Torp’s achievements is his tireless effort to build up the Norwegian Institute in Rome. The Institute’s founder, Hans Peter L'Orange, convinced Norwegian authorities and donors about the necessity to establish a national institute in Rome, but he trusted his student Hjalmar Torp to follow up on the practical issues related to this. Torp was involved from the very start in 1959, and he held the position of Director of the Institute from 1977 to 1983.
After his retirement, he returned to the work on the mosaics of Hagios Georgios and in 2018, the major publication appeared under the title La Rotonde Palatine à Thessalonique.
Hjalmar Torp was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, and in 1999 was honoured with the Fridtjof Nansen Award for outstanding research. He was also highly regarded in Italy. In 1967, he received the prestigious honour of Cavaliere Ufficiale dell'Ordine Al Merito della Repubblica Italiana. Because of his research on the so-called Tempietto longobardo in Cividale del Friuli, he was made an honorary citizen of that city in 2006.
The Norwegian Institute in Rome is eternally grateful to Hjalmar Torp, and we honour his memory.
Hjalmar Torp
1946-48: Studies in Italy
1948-49: Studies in Copenhagen
1949: Excavations with Ejnar Dyggve in Salona, Yugoslavia
1950: MA in art history with minor subjects in classical archaeology and church history
1950-51: Research fellow, Paris, Sorbonne
1951: Egypt
1952-53: Copenhagen
1953: Greece, Thessaloniki
1953-55: USA, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington
1958: Greece
1959-66: Scientific secretary, Norwegian Institute in Rome
1967-76: Associate Professor, University of Oslo
1977-83: Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome
1977-83: Associate Professor, University of Oslo
1983-: Full Professor of European Medieval Art, University of Oslo, emeritus from 1994