The Institute of Fine Arts Faculty

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Thomas Mathews

John Langeloth Loeb Professor Emeritus in the History of Art

PhD 1970, New York; S.T.L. 1965 (theology), Weston College; M.A. 1962, New York; M.A. 1958 (philosophy), B.A. 1957, Boston College.

Research interests

Early Christian and Byzantine art and architecture.

Selected publications

Mathews, Thomas and Avedis Krikor Sanjian.Armenian Gospel Iconography: the tradition of the Glajor Gospel. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks 1991.

The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul: A Photographic Survey.University Park: Pennsylvannia State University Press, 1976.

The Early Churches of Constantinople: Architecture and Liturgy.University Park: Pennsylvannia State University Press, 1971.

Selected honors

Getty Fund Grant for Collaborative Research: "From Pagan to Byzantine Icons in Late Antique Egypt."

Committee of Senior Fellows, Dumbarton Oaks, 2001-03.

2001 Guest Curator, J. Paul Getty Museum, The Gladzor Gospels.

1999-2000 Samuel H. Kress research grant, Late Antique Panel Painting.

Visiting Committee to Medieval Art and the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996-present.

J. Clawson Mills Fellowship, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1996-97.

Guest Curator for "Treasures in Heaven" exhibit of Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994, under grant from N.E.H.

John Langeloth Loeb Professorship in the History of Art, 1993-present.

Hagop Kevorkian Fund Research Grant, 1991.

Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, spring 1990.

Research interests

Primary:
Art and 2nd mill. Mediterranean integration: Crete; art and Greek progress from infiltration to Greek statehood, 2nd – 1st mill.; political origin and role of Classical art.

Secondary:
Europe, 6th c. B.C. – 6th c. A.D. – ‘Rome North of the Alps’: present and antiquity.

Sample courses

A Question: The Effect of Crete [second / first mill.]
Metal and Clay – Oppositions in Greek History [second / first mill.]
‘The Heart’s Desire’ and other Reasons: Inquiry into the Popularity of Greek Art [second / first mill.]
Greek Art as Political Idea [second / first mill.]
Sculpture of the Athenian Democracy to Pericles
The Phoenicians, 12th – 6th