Lilian Armstrong (Wellesley College ’58) is the Mildred Lane Kemper Professor of Art Emerita at Wellesley College where she was on the faculty from 1964 until her retirement in 2006. In addition to her BA from Wellesley, she has an MA in Fine Arts from Radcliffe/Harvard, 1959, and a Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University, 1966. Her areas of teaching included Italian Renaissance Painting and Sculpture; Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Illumination; and seminars on Venetian Renaissance Art and on topics in Italian Renaissance Sculpture.

Professor Armstrong’s books are The Paintings and Drawings of Marco Zoppo (New York, 1976); Renaissance Miniature Painters and Classical Imagery: The Master of the Putti and His Venetian Workshop (London, Harvey Miller Publishers, 1981); the co-authored exhibition catalogue: The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination, 1450-1550, (ed. Jonathan J. G. Alexander, London, Royal Academy of Arts and New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1994); and co-authored with Piero Scapecchi and Federica Toniolo, Gli Incunaboli della Biblioteca del Seminario Vescovile di Padova: Catalogo e Studi, ed. by Pierantonio Gios and Federica Toniolo (Padova, Istituto per la storia ecclesiastica padovana, 2008).  Her collected scholarly articles were published as Studies of Renaissance Miniaturists in Venice (2 vols.; London, Pindar Press, 2003); in them she investigates Venetian Renaissance manuscript illumination and the decoration of early printed books. Articles since 2003 included an essay on Triumph of Caesar woodcuts in the exhibition Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian (Davis Museum, Wellesley College; and Yale University Art Gallery, 2008).

Among her honors and fellowships, Professor Armstrong was named the first holder of the Marion Butler McLean Chair in the History of Ideas at Wellesley College (1983-1987); she was appointed a Visiting Scholar to the Department of Manuscripts of the J. Paul Getty Museum (Spring 1988); and was a Resident Scholar at the American Academy in Rome (Spring 1997). She has also been the recipient of three National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for College Teachers (1984-85; 1991-92; and 1999-2000).  “A Renaissance Afternoon: A Symposium on Italian Renaissance Art in Honor of Lilian Armstrong”, was held at Wellesley College, September, 2006, with six speakers on Renaissance Art all of whom were Professor Armstrong’s former students.

Professor Armstrong served on many standing committees at Wellesley College including the Curriculum Committee, the Committee on Faculty Appointments (college tenure committee), the Board of Admissions, the Academic Review Board, and the Merit Review of Full Professors Committee; she also served two terms as Chair of the Art Department.  Since retiring from teaching at Wellesley, Professor Armstrong has continued to lead a lively scholarly life, lecturing and publishing in her field.

Profile last updated: 01/09