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Steinberg (Leo) Research Papers
930046
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Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: Leo Steinberg research papers
Creator: Barr, Margaret Scolari, 1901-1987
Creator: Cohen, Gerson D. (Gerson David), 1924-
Creator: D'Harnoncourt, Rene, 1901-1968
Creator: Goldwater, Robert, 1907-1973
Creator: Held, Julius S. (Julius Samuel), 1905-2002
Creator: Bober, Harry, 1915-1988
Creator: Canaday, John, 1907-1985
Creator: Chastel, André, 1912-1990
Creator: Krautheimer, Richard, 1897-1994
Creator: Lavin, Irving, 1927-2019
Creator: Lehmann, Karl, 1894-1960
Creator: Leider, Philip, , 1929-
Creator: Janson, H. W. (Horst Woldemar), 1913-1982
Creator: Panofsky, Erwin, 1892-1968
Creator: Kitzinger, Ernst, 1912-2003
Creator: Kramer, Hilton
Creator: Michelson, Annette
Creator: Lowry, Bates, 1923-2004
Creator: Lotz, Wolfgang, 1912-1981
Creator: Sterling, Charles, 1901-1991
Creator: Steinberg, Leo, 1920-2011
Creator: Salmony, Alfred, 1890-1958
Creator: Wittkower, Rudolf
Creator: Weissberger, Herbert
Identifier/Call Number: 930046
Physical Description: 12 Linear Feet(54 boxes, 63 unprocessed boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1945-1996 (bulk 1950-1993)
Date (bulk): 1950-1993
Abstract: Art historian, critic, lecturer, and professor. The papers consist of research notes, correspondence relating to Steinberg's
lectures and essays, papers written by his students, several versions of some of his essays, an abandoned dissertation project,
and many of his notebooks from courses he took at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York. The archive reflects Steinberg's career
as an art critic, lecturer, and teacher, ca. 1945-ca.1996.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
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Language of Material: English.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Leo Steinberg Research Papers consist of research notes, correspondence relating to his lectures and essays, papers written
by his students, several versions of some of his essays, an abandoned dissertation project, and many of his notebooks from
courses he took at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. The archive reflects Steinberg's career as an art critic,
lecturer and teacher from ca. 1945-ca. 1996. Correspondence from ca.1993-1996 consists mainly of letters and notes by Steinberg
about the archive.
The research notes and course notebooks, which contain numerous photographs, give a clear picture of Steinberg's topics of
interest. The artists he concentrated on include Francesco Borromini, Auguste Rodin and Titian (boxes 1-8). The correspondence
deals mostly with lectures he gave at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and elsewhere (boxes 9-10); the publication series refers
almost exclusively to the essays compiled in his book
Other Criteria (boxes 11 and 12, the latter an audio tape). The abandoned dissertation,
Afterlife of Romanesque, reflects his interest in romanesque art and architecture under the influence of his professor, Richard Krautheimer (box
13); and the course notebooks contain his notes from his student days with such distinguished art historians as Erwin Panofsky,
Richard Krautheimer, Charles Sterling, Karl Lehmann, Alfred Salmony, Harry Bober and Wolfgang Lotz (boxes 14-28).
The papers are organized in 7 series:
Series I. Borromini research, 1953-1993 (bulk 1953-1960);
Series II. Rodin research, 1962-1977;Series III. Titian research, 1965-1986;
Series IV. Correspondence and lectures, 1952-1995;
Series V. Publications: Manuscripts and Letters, 1962-1996;
Series VI. Abandoned dissertation, 1956;
Series VII. Course notes, 1950-1963.
Leo Steinberg, art historian, critic, lecturer and professor, was born in Russia in 1920 and lived in Berlin and London before
emigrating to the United States in 1938. After studying at the Slade School of Art in London, he entered the Institute of
Fine Arts at New York University in the mid-1950s (Ph.D., 1960), where he studied art and architecture with historians Harry
Bober, Richard Krautheimer, Karl Lehmann, Wolfgang Lotz, Erwin Panofsky, Alfred Salmony and Charles Sterling. In 1958 and
1959 he was a guest of the American Academy in Rome, where he researched and wrote his dissertation on the baroque architect
Francesco Borromini.
Steinberg taught drawing and art history at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York from
1961 to 1975, and ended his teaching career as Benjamin Franklin Professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1975-1991).
His lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio School in New York, Columbia University, and elsewhere attracted
a broad audience of artists, art lovers and scholars. As an art critic, he is known for his writings on historical subjects
and individual artists, as well as on modern and contemporary art subjects.
Published works range from short reviews and essays to book-length studies and include
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, a study in multiple form and architectual symbolism, 1960;
Jasper Johns, 1963;
Other Criteria, 1972 (compilation of 18 essays);
Michelangelo's last paintings, the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Cappella Paolina, Vatican
Palace
, 1975;
The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance art and in modern oblivion, 1983.
Leo Steinberg is the first art historian to receive the Award in Literature from the American Academy and the Institute for
Arts and Letters (1983). He also received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism from the College
Art Association (1984), and a MacArthur Fellowship (1986).
Jocelyn Gibbs processed and wrote a box list for the first acquisition (accession no. 930046). A supplementary acquisition
(accession no. 960096) was moved to this collection and processed by Rose Lachman.
Additions received in 2012 and 2013 are not yet processed.
Received from Leo Steinberg, in two acquisitions, 1993, 1996.
Leo Steinberg research papers, 1945-1996 (bulk 1950-1993), Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 930046.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa930046
Contact
Library Rights and Reproductions .
Open for use by qualified researchers.
An audio tape of Paul Brach interviewed by Clare Spark-Loeb regarding
Other Criteria was digitized in July 2017. Access is available only to on-site next hit Readers and Getty staff.
Click here for digitized recording.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographs, Original
Photographic prints
Notebooks
Art, Modern -- History
Arts (New York, N.Y.)
Art -- History -- Study and teaching (Graduate) -- United States
Art journal (New York, N.Y.)
Art historians -- United States
Art critics -- United States
Art historians -- Archives
Rodin, Auguste, 1840-1917
Borromini, Francesco, 1599-1667
Johns, Jasper, 1930-
Titian, approximately 1488-1576