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Notes from the Chair
John Beldon Scott
Xander Van Eck
Erik Thunø
Rona Goffen
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Jack Spector's Retirement Party
Rona Goffen,
1944-2004
A symposium organized by Dr. Goffen's students in her honor will take place in
fall 2005 at Rutgers University.
Obituary by David Rosand, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History
Columbia University, reproduced by kind permission of the author
With each book, Rona Goffen consolidated her place as one of the most influential
and innovative of Italian Renaissance art historians in the 20th Century. Her
1986 study, Piety and Patronage in Renaissance Venice: Bellini, Titian, and
the Franciscans (Yale, 1986) earned her attention as one of the "new" art
historians, combining detailed attention to the ways painters work with a probing
view of how social and economic forces shape the subject matter of, and responses
to, painting. It earned wide attention for its focus on the roles of piety
and politics in the construction of the Franciscan church Santa Maria del Frari,
which was supported by the patronage of the Pesaro family. Her Spirituality
in Conflict: Saint Francis and Giotto's Bardi Chapel (University of Pennsylvania,
1988) concerns the intense religious debate within the Franciscan Order during
the Duecento and Trecento and how this conflict plays out in commissions associated
with the Florentine church of Santa Croce (notably the Bardi Saint Francis
Panel and Giotto's frescoes for the Bardi Chapel). Her Giovanni Bellini (Yale,
1994), now in its second printing (Italian edition in 1990), is the definitive
study of Bellini, and has earned international acclaim for the boldness of
its argument and the deftness of its attention to the cultural forces that
shaped Bellini's work. Her Titian's Women (Yale, 1997) brought a feminist theoretical
perspective to Titian's preoccupation with women as subjects. Writing in the
New York Times Book Review, Gary Wills celebrated Professor Goffen's study
as showing "one of her principal strengths, her skill as a social historian
reconstructing the conditions of patronage, gift giving and market pricing
that affected Renaissance Venice." Her Renaissance Rivals: Michelangelo,
Leonardo, Raphael, Titian (Yale, 2002) explored the fascinating Italian Renaissance
environment that produced perhaps the greatest of all art.
Professor Goffen was working on two new books at the time of her death, Renaissance
Women: Art and Life in Italy, 1300-1600 and Fathers of Invention: The Last
Judgment, from Giotto to Michelangelo (the Rand lectures, to be published by
the University of North Carolina Press). Two chapters had been completed of
Renaissance Women: the first on representations of the Virgin, the second on “wives,
widows, and mothers.” The book focuses on placing female portraiture
in its cultural, religious, and social contexts.
In addition, Professor Goffen edited and provided chapters in studies of Titian's
Venus of Urbino and of Masaccio's Trinity; wrote numerous articles and reviews;
received ACLS, NEH, Guggenheim and many other fellowships; and became one of
the most widely sought-after speakers at major conferences and museums throughout
the world because her work was so widely read and discussed. Her writing was
reviewed not only in the major journals of Renaissance art, history, and literature,
but regularly in the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Review of Books,
the London Review of Books, and the New York Times Book Review. Her standing
insured that her books received the attention of the general public. Indeed,
the London Independent named Titian's Women an "Art Book of the Year." As
Gary Wills noted in his discussion of this volume: "To argue with Goffen's
book is to see how much she equips all others for the argument."
Rona Goffen's professional standing is indicated by the boards she served
on and the colleges and universities interested in having her join their faculties.
In Fall 1997 she was asked to serve on the Board of Advisors of the Center
for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. She was
also a board member of the Renaissance Society of America. From 1988-94 she
was co-editor of Renaissance Quarterly; and she remained an associate editor
of the journal through 2000. She also served on the editorial board of Venezia
Cinquecento. In Fall 1997 she was Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor
of Art History at Williams College. Professor Goffen was Chair of the Department
of Art History at Rutgers from 1990 to 1996, and taught at Rutgers until her
death.
Current graduate students and recent alumni/ae who studied
with Professor Goffen gathered at the memorial service in November 2004. From
left to right: Aileen Wang, Patricia Zalamea, Christine Goulding, Mary Shay
Millea, Katie Poole and ZB Smetana.
The Renaissance Society of America is pleased to announce a
travel grant in honor of Rona Goffen. If you are interested in contributing
to the Rona Goffen Venetian Art Travel Fund, please contact Lauren Schwartz
at the RSA: (212) 817-2130 or rsa@rsa.org. Donations may be mailed to:
Renaissance Society of America
The Graduate School and University Center
The City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 5400
New York, NY 10016-4309
For further information, please contact Claire Brown at (609) 273-4259 or
claireb94@hotmail.com
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 Department of Art History
Voorhees Hall
71 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Tel: 732-932-7041
Fax: 732-932-1261
Catherine Puglisi, Chairperson
Erik Thunø , Undergraduate Director
Susan Sidlauskas, Graduate Program Director
Cathy Pizzi, Department Administrator
Geralyn Colvil, Student Coordinator
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