Public Programs @ The Institute
Series: Craig Hugh Smyth Lecture
Columns, Honor, and Shame
Thursday, April 30, 2026 6:00 pm
Michael Cole, Columbia University
In the early modern world, columns were used to honor and to shame. Honorific columns have been studied extensively by art historians; their negative counterparts, by contrast, have often seemed more to be the domain of ethnographers or of social and legal historians. What do we see differently if we study the material collectively?
Michael Cole is Howard McP. Davis Professor of Art History at Columbia University. His most recent books are Sofonisba's Lesson: A Renaissance Artist and Her Work (revised and expanded edition forthcoming 2026) and Spanish Italy & the Spanish Americas: Connected Art Histories (co-edited with Alessandra Russo, forthcoming 2026).
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