Creighton Gilbert (1924–2011)

Cornell and Yale professor of the Italian Renaissance and Michelangelo. Gilbert was the son of Allan H. Gilbert (1888-1976) and Katharine Everett (Gilbert) (1886-1952), both professors at Duke University. His mother is a distinguished aesthetician for whom a dormitory at Duke is named. The younger Gilbert grew up in Durham, NC, attending the public schools and various undergraduate colleges including Duke University, 1938-1940, Johns Hopkins University, 1940, and New York University where he received a BA in 1942. He pursued graduate work at New York University, teaching as an instructor in the department of art history at Emory University, Atlanta, GA in 1946 and the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, the following year. He remained at Louisville until 1956 except for a year as a Fulbright professor, University of Rome in 1951-1952. He published an early article, "On Subject and Non-Subject Renaissance Pictures" in Art Bulletin following his return. His Ph.D., from NYU was granted in 1955 on the somewhat obscure topic of Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (fl 1506-1548). Walter Friedlaender and Richard Krautheimer supervised the dissertation. He was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959 and then curator of the Ringling [Art] Museum in Sarasota, FL, through 1961. That year he moved to Waltham, MA, to be associate professor of art at Brandeis University, where he chaired the department (1963-1966). He was visiting professor at Harvard University, 1964, receiving the Frank Jewett Mather's Award for Art Journalism from the College Art Association the same year. In 1965 Gilbert was named Sidney and Ellen Vienna Professor of History of Art; He left Brandeis for Queens College (Flushing, NY), City University of New York, as professor of art, and chairman of department. For the 1967-68 year, Gilbert was named a Kress fellow, Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor at Williams College, Williamstown, MA, in 1976, and Jacob Gould Schurman, Professor of History at Cornell University in 1977. Gilbert was appointed Yale University professor of history of art in 1981. He was editor-in-chief of the Art Bulletin between 1980-1985.