 | Robert S. Nelson |
Robert S. Nelson, recently named as the Robert Lehman Professor of the History of Art, specializes in the art of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages, especially that of the Byzantine Empire.
His current work focuses on the relation of Byzantine art to culture and society, the reception of the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts in the Italian Renaissance, and the constitution of Byzantine art and history from 1750 to the present. He is also interested in vision and visuality and the functioning of holy objects in society.
He has written three books: "The Iconography of Preface and Miniature in the Byzantine Gospel Book," "Theodore Hagiopetrites, A Late Byzantine Scribe and Illuminator" and "Hagia Sophia 1850-1950: Holy Wisdom Modern Monument." In preparation are a volume of his previously published articles and a volume he is editing about icons from Mount Sinai for a 2006 exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, which he is also organizing. Nelson has also edited or co-edited a number of other books and has authored many articles.
Nelson comes to Yale from the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1977 and was chair of the Department of Art 1990-1995. He was named the Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and History of Culture there in 2001 and the Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus this year.
The art historian was a consultant for a Byzantine exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004. That year, he also co-directed "Constructing the Past in the Middle East," a summer institute for postdoctoral scholars in Istanbul sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Grant Program. In addition to that grant, Nelson has been awarded grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the J. Paul Getty Trust, Villa I Tatti -- Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others.
Nelson is a former director of the International Center of Medieval Art and a former vice-president of the United States National Committee for Byzantine Studies and of the International Association of Byzantine Studies. He currently serves on the international advisory board of the Courtauld Institute of Art's Research Forum.
T H I S
Robert S. Nelson: Robert Lehman Professor
of the History of Art
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ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Richard L. Cohn: Battell Professor of the Theory of Music
Lawrence Manley: William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English
Robert S. Nelson: Robert Lehman Professor of the History of Art
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Alumni magazine now reaches every Yale graduate in the U.S.
Campus Notes
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