Areas of Interest
Rembrandt; East/West studies; Word/Image studies.

Education
Ph.D. Columbia University 1984; M.A. Williams College-Clark Art Institute1975; B.A. magna cum laude Brandeis University 1973

Personal Statement
I teach Art in the Dark at Lycoming College: survey, advanced courses and the senior seminar. I am immediate past president of the American Association for Netherlandic Studies. I write book reviews for several international publications, including the Historians of Netherlandish Art Newsletter, and serve on the editorial boards of the journals Dutch Crossing and The Low Countries: A Yearbook. I have held grants and awards from the National Gallery (CASVA), Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst; the Lycoming College Faculty Development Grant for Research (seventeen awards); the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Newberry Library; and the Whiting Foundation. I participate in national and international conferences, and regularly give special lectures on my research.

One aspect of my research is to solve puzzles. Here is one example. In a painting by Rembrandt of the ancient Queen Artemisia, one clue has been overlooked: a very large book resting on a table. Queen Artemisia is most famous for expressing her love of her deceased husband in an unusual manner: she cremated his body and daily drank a potion mixed with his ashes. This indicated that his final resting place was her own rather prominent belly.

But another way in which she demonstrated her devotion was to hold a literary contest in her husband's honor. The book in Rembrandt's painting is Artemisia's copy of the eulogies. Artists tended to concentrate on the more sensational act of her love, rather than the eulogy contest. Rembrandt in this regard was an exception, and his Artemisia is, uniquely, both ash drinker and patron of the literary arts.

The Lycoming College Art Gallery has been an on-going interest of mine. In 1998, I curated, with Roger Shipley, an exhibition of a group of paintings and sculptures from Williamsport, The Park Home Collection . A selection of these works are now on display at the Lycoming County Historical Society and Museum . I am writing a series of articles about art in Williamsport, which has some remarkable pieces, all unknown in the wider world. My students have researched some of the art in Williamsport, and presented their findings at conferences.

Selected  Publications

  "A Sophonisba by Lastman?" Mia Mochizuki, Amy Golahny, and Lisa Vergara, eds., In his Milieu: Essays on Netherlandish Art in Memory of John Michael Montias , Amsterdam, 2006  

"Lievens' Reading: Some Observations on his Mucius Scaevola before Porsenna ," R. van Straten and M. Roscam Abbing, eds., Around Rembrandt/Rond Rembrandt , Leiden, 2006  

"George Loring Brown : 'Near Sunset:   Bay of Naples': An ideal view in

an anachronistic collection in Williamsport," 19th Century: The Magazine of The Victorian Society in America , May 2005

"Alberto Martini:Poe visivo in un contesto internazionale," Fantastico Poe , Roberto Cagliero, ed., Ombre Corte, Verona, 2004, 217-43

"The Challenge of Reading: Observations on Bol and Rembrandt,"   Rembrandt-Zeichnungen   in München: Symposion zur Ausstellung , Thea Vignau-Wilberg, ed., Munich, 2003, 83-93

"Rembrandt's World History Illustrated by Merian," in Publications of the American Association for Netherlandic Studies , vol. 13, R. Howell and J. V. Taylor, eds., Lanham, 2003, 73-80

Rembrandt's Reading , Amsterdam University Press, 2003

"Rembrandt's Drawing of  'Pyrrhus and Fabricius'", Master Drawings , 40, 2002, 243-48

"Homer, Raphael, Rembrandt: Reading  'Vulcan's Net,'" in Rethinking Rembrandt , eds. A.Chong and M. Zell, Gardner Museum, 2002

Reception: Reflections on Rembrandt, a special issue of Dutch Crossing, vol. 25 [2], Winter 2001, guest editor and contributor

"Insights into the Dutch Vasari: Carel van Mander's 'Life of Titian,'" Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies , 2001

"Rembrandt's 'Europa', in and out of pictorial and textual tradition," in Wege zum Mythos , L. Freedman and G. Huber-Rebenich, eds., Berlin 2001, 39-55

"Rembrandt's 'Artemisia': Arts Patron," Oud Holland , 114, 2/4, 2000, 139-52

"Rembrandt's Practical Approach to Italian Art: Three Variations," The Low Countries , 7, 1999, 123-31

"Lastman's 'Dido's Sacrifice to Juno' Identified," Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis , 1998, 39-48

"Pieter Lastman in the Literature: From Immortality to Oblivion," Dutch Crossing , 20, Summer 1996, 87-116

The Eye of the Poet: Studies in the Reciprocity of the Literary and Visual Arts , editor and contributor, Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996; "Ekphrasis in the Interarts Discourse" and "Paired Poems on Pendant Paintings: Vondel and Oudaan Interpret Lastman"

"Literature, Poetry, and the Visual Arts in the 17th Century," Sheila Muller ed., Dutch Art 1475-1990 , Garland Press, 1996

"Rubens' 'Hero and Leander' and its Poetic Progeny," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin , Spring 1990, 20-37

"Rembrandt's 'Ruts' and Moroni's 'Bearded Man,' Source , 10, Fall 1990, 22-25

"Rembrandt's 'Abduction of Proserpina,'" in Papers in Art History from The Pennsylvania State University, Volume 3: Dutch Art of the Golden Age , University Park, 1988, 28-46

"Rembrandt's Early 'Bathsheba': The Raphael Connection," Art Bulletin , 65, 1983, 671-75

"Jan de Bisschop's 'St. Helena' after Veronese," Master Drawings , 19, 1981,
25-27