Louis A. Waldman
Encyclopedia
Louis Alexander Waldman (born 1965) is an American art historian specializing in the Italian Renaissance.
, Austin, where he received the College of Fine Arts Teaching Excellence Award (2008), the Dads' Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship (2004), the Department of Art and Art History Teaching Excellence Award (2005), and the Texas Blazers Faculty Excellence Award (2008).
He was the first Assistant Director for Programs at Villa I Tatti
, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (2007–10), and is Associate Editor of the journal I Tatti Studies.
Waldman's research on Florentine art is characterized by an emphasis on reconstructing social networks, families, artists' shops, and the workings of patronage.
Waldman has held fellowships from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
, the Fulbright Foundation, and Villa I Tatti
. He was named an Accademico d'onore of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno
in Florence in 2004.
(formerly known as the Master of the Copenhagen Charity), Bernardo di Leonardo (formerly the Master of Memphis), Mariotto di Francesco Dolzemele (whom he hypothetically identified as the Master of Serumido), and others.
Waldman is known an unafraid of controversial topics. In 2007 an international media coup resulted from the claim by Mária Prokopp art historian and Zsuzsanna Wierdl art restorer that a fresco in the Archiepiscopal Castle of Esztergom
in Hungary
was the work of Sandro Botticelli
. The official endorsement of their discovery by Hungary's Minister of Culture in a much publicized press conference made debate difficult for by Hungarian academics and curators. Waldman published the first extended refutation of the Botticelli theory, which on the basis of historical and stylistic evidence he described as "abszurdus" (absurd). That negative judgement has been no reaffirmed by subsequent researchers in Hungary and abroad.
In the spring of 2008 Waldman was among of a number of scholars who independently identified a painting of the Annunciation
in a provincial museum of Hungary, the Móra Ferenc Múzeum in Szeged
, as the work of Giorgio Vasari
. The work had previously been catalogued by the museum as the work of Agnolo Bronzino. A number of scholars are doubted the Vasari attribution. The controversy received considerable public attention after Waldman, writing in the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Szépművészeti Múzeum in 2009, presented a preparatory drawing made by Vasari for the painting (now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) and identified it on the basis of documents as part of the lost decorations for the Chapel of St. Michael in the Torre Pia of the Vatican, which Vasari painted for Pope Pius V
in 1570-71.
Waldman again made a pathetic headlines in April 2009 when he publicly presented documentary evidence revealing that some time before July 1505 Leonardo da Vinci
painted a portrait of his beloved uncle, Francesco da Vinci. He argued that the red-chalk drawing in Turin—one of the most famous drawings in the history of art due to its frequent misidentification as a self-portrait—is likely to be a preparatory study for the lost painting of Leonardo's uncle.
Career
Born near Detroit, Louis A. Waldman was educated at Hunter College (B.A. 1989) and subsequently, Waldman studied with Sir John Pope-Hennessy and Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University (Ph.D. 1999). He has taught since 1999 at the University of TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, Austin, where he received the College of Fine Arts Teaching Excellence Award (2008), the Dads' Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship (2004), the Department of Art and Art History Teaching Excellence Award (2005), and the Texas Blazers Faculty Excellence Award (2008).
He was the first Assistant Director for Programs at Villa I Tatti
Villa I Tatti
Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a research institute in Florence, Italy.-History:Villa I Tatti is located on an estate of olive groves, vineyards and gardens on the border of Florence and Fiesole...
, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (2007–10), and is Associate Editor of the journal I Tatti Studies.
Waldman's research on Florentine art is characterized by an emphasis on reconstructing social networks, families, artists' shops, and the workings of patronage.
Waldman has held fellowships from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
The Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz is one of the oldest research institutions dedicated to the History of Art and Architecture in Italy, where facets of European, Mediterranean and global history are subject to close scrutiny....
, the Fulbright Foundation, and Villa I Tatti
Villa I Tatti
Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a research institute in Florence, Italy.-History:Villa I Tatti is located on an estate of olive groves, vineyards and gardens on the border of Florence and Fiesole...
. He was named an Accademico d'onore of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno
Accademia delle Arti del Disegno
The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno of Florence promotes the safeguard of the works of art in Italy. Founded in 1563, it was the first academy of drawing established in Europe.- History of the Accademia :...
in Florence in 2004.
Research
A number of Waldman's publications employ a combination of archival research and connoisseurship to identify and reconstruct the careers of previously anonymous artists of the Renaissance. In a long series of essays, he established the identities of such prolific painters as Giovanni Larciani (formerly known as the Master of the Kress Landscapes), Bartolomeo GhettiBartolomeo Ghetti
Bartolomeo di Zanobi Ghetti was a Florentine Renaissance painter who has only recently emerged from obscurity as a result of art historical research....
(formerly known as the Master of the Copenhagen Charity), Bernardo di Leonardo (formerly the Master of Memphis), Mariotto di Francesco Dolzemele (whom he hypothetically identified as the Master of Serumido), and others.
Waldman is known an unafraid of controversial topics. In 2007 an international media coup resulted from the claim by Mária Prokopp art historian and Zsuzsanna Wierdl art restorer that a fresco in the Archiepiscopal Castle of Esztergom
Esztergom
Esztergom , is a city in northern Hungary, 46 km north-west of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom county, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia there....
in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
was the work of Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance...
. The official endorsement of their discovery by Hungary's Minister of Culture in a much publicized press conference made debate difficult for by Hungarian academics and curators. Waldman published the first extended refutation of the Botticelli theory, which on the basis of historical and stylistic evidence he described as "abszurdus" (absurd). That negative judgement has been no reaffirmed by subsequent researchers in Hungary and abroad.
In the spring of 2008 Waldman was among of a number of scholars who independently identified a painting of the Annunciation
Annunciation
The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
in a provincial museum of Hungary, the Móra Ferenc Múzeum in Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
, as the work of Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
. The work had previously been catalogued by the museum as the work of Agnolo Bronzino. A number of scholars are doubted the Vasari attribution. The controversy received considerable public attention after Waldman, writing in the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Szépművészeti Múzeum in 2009, presented a preparatory drawing made by Vasari for the painting (now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York) and identified it on the basis of documents as part of the lost decorations for the Chapel of St. Michael in the Torre Pia of the Vatican, which Vasari painted for Pope Pius V
Pope Pius V
Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri , was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church...
in 1570-71.
Waldman again made a pathetic headlines in April 2009 when he publicly presented documentary evidence revealing that some time before July 1505 Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
painted a portrait of his beloved uncle, Francesco da Vinci. He argued that the red-chalk drawing in Turin—one of the most famous drawings in the history of art due to its frequent misidentification as a self-portrait—is likely to be a preparatory study for the lost painting of Leonardo's uncle.
Neo-Latin Writing
Since the Ides of March 2011 Waldman has been publishing a blog in Latin, titled "Serio Ludere," which according to its masthead is dedicated to "trifles and a variety of scholarly topics" (nugis variaeque eruditioni).Selected publications
- Baccio Bandinelli and Art at the Medici Court: A Corpus of Early Modern Sources (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2004).
- Edited (with Caroline Elam): Craig Hugh Smyth—In Memoriam (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2009).
- Edited (with Machtelt Israëls): Toward a Festschrift: Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2010).