Andrew Thomas Ladis (January 30, 1949 – December 2, 2007) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-born American

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

particularly known for his studies on early

Italian Renaissance painting Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political stat ...

.Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, (2007) pp. 1-2 His 1983 book, ''Taddeo Gaddi: A Critical Review and Catalogue Raisonné'', was the first detailed study of

Taddeo Gaddi Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1290, in Florence – 1366, in Florence) was a medieval Italian painter and architect. He was the son of Gaddo di Zanobi, called Gaddo Gaddi. He was a member of Giotto's workshop from 1313 until the master's death in 1337. A ...

in the English language. At time of his death he was the Franklin Professor of Art History at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

Lamar Dodd School of Art The Lamar Dodd School of Art is the art school of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia, United States. History In 1927, the University of Georgia’s board of trustees voted to establish ...

Biography

Andrew Ladis was born in

Athens, Greece Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. His parents, Thomas and Marina Ladis, emigrated to the United States when Ladis was a small boy and settled in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, where he graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. He received his BA in history (with Distinction) from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in 1970. After graduating, he briefly attended the University of Virginia Law School, but then transferred to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to study art history. He earned his MA in 1974 and PhD in 1978. His doctoral thesis was on the 14th century Italian painter

. Ladis would later expand this dissertation into his first book, ''Taddeo Gaddi: A Critical Review and Catalogue Raisonné'', the first detailed study of Gaddi in the English language. After teaching at

Austin Peay State University Austin Peay State University () is a public university in Clarksville, Tennessee. Standing on a site occupied by a succession of educational institutions since 1845, the precursor of the university was established in 1927 and named for then-sitt ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, the

State University of New York at Potsdam The State University of New York at Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam or, colloquially, Potsdam) is a public college in Potsdam, New York. It is the northernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Founded in 1816, it is among the ...

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, and

Wright State University Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in honor of aviation ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, he joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1987 and remained there for the rest of his career, becoming the Franklin Professor of Art History at the university's

. While at the University of Georgia he took time off to spend a year at the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

, where he held the Hohenberg Chair of Excellence in Art History, and twice served as a Fellow and Visiting Professor at the

Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan cler ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. Later in life, he also developed an interest in American art and wrote a series of essays on Gerald Brockhurst, Lucy May Stanton,

George Biddle George Biddle (January 24, 1885 – November 6, 1973) was an American painter, muralist and lithographer, best known for his social realism and combat art. A childhood friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he played a major role in establi ...

Raphael Soyer Raphael Zalman Soyer (December 25, 1899 – November 4, 1987) was a Russian-born American painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Soyer was referred to as an American scene painter. He is identified as a Social Realist because of his interest in men ...

Paul Cadmus Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 – December 12, 1999) was an American artist widely known for his egg tempera paintings of gritty social interactions in urban settings. He also produced many highly finished drawings of single nude male figures ...

, and

Andrée Ruellan Andrée Ruellan (April 6, 1905 – July 15, 2006) was an American artist whose realist work has modernist overtones and commonly depicts everyday scenes in American South and New York City. Born in Manhattan of French descent, she spent her youth ...

. Ladis died of cancer in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

on December 2, 2007 at the age of 58. He was survived by his partner of 37 years, William Underwood Eiland, director of the

Georgia Museum of Art The Georgia Museum of Art is an art museum in Athens, Georgia, United States, associated with the University of Georgia (UGA). The museum is both an academic museum and, since 1982, the official art museum of the state of Georgia. The permanent co ...

. Papers from Ladis's 2006

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

were published in ''The Historian's Eye: Essays on Italian Art in Honor of Andrew Ladis'' (Georgia Museum of Art, 2009).Georgia Museum of Art (2009). See also a special volume on art and literature in his honor in ''Explorations in Renaissance Culture'', vol. 32, no. 2 (Winter 2006).

Selected bibliography

Ladis was the general editor or co-editor of six volumes and series on art history, as well as authoring numerous scholarly articles and monographs and several books, including: *''Taddeo Gaddi: A Critical Review and Catalogue Raisonné'' (1983) *''The Brancacci Chapel, Florence'' (1993) *''Studies in Italian Art'' (2001) *''Victims and Villains in Vasari's Lives (Bettie Allison Rand Lectures in Art History)'' (2008) *''Giotto's "O": Narrative, Figuration, and Pictorial Ingenuity in the Arena Chapel'' (2008)

Notes and references

Sources

*''Explorations in Renaissance Culture'' vol. 32, no. 2 (Winter 2006). (This issue, which contains articles by Andrew Ladis, Marina Della Putta Johnston, Karen Goodchild, April Oettinger and Norman Land, is dedicated to Andrew Ladis. A brief memoir concerning Andrew Ladis by Bruce Cole also appears) *Georgia Museum of Art
Publications: Renaissance and Baroque Art
2009. Retrieved 2010-09-07. *University of Georgia
Andrew Ladis
Retrieved 2010-09-07. *Phillips, Julie
"Art world mourns loss"
''

Athens Banner-Herald The ''Athens Banner-Herald'' is a daily newspaper with less than 20,000 circulation located in Athens, Georgia, USA, and owned by Gannett. The paper has a Sunday special and publishes online under the name ''Online Athens''. It has been through ...

'', December 4, 2007. Retrieved 2010-09-07. *

In Memoriam: Andrew Ladis
2007, Retrieved 2010-09-07.

External links

Andrew Ladis
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ladis, Andrew 1949 births 2007 deaths People from Richmond County, Virginia American art historians University of Georgia faculty University of Virginia alumni Greek emigrants to the United States 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Historians from Virginia American male non-fiction writers