Maryan Ainsworth, who often publishes as Maryan Wynn Ainsworth, is an 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 ...

, author and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

specializing in 14th, 15th and 16th century Northern European painting, particularly in

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees at Oberlin College and her Ph.D. at Yale University. She has spent her entire forty-year career at The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, where since 2002 she has served as the Curator of Early Netherlandish, French, and German Painting in the European Paintings Department. In this position, and previously as Senior Research Fellow in the Sherman Fairchild Paintings Conservation Department, she has specialized in an interdisciplinary approach to the investigation of

Northern Renaissance The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...

paintings, uniting technical investigations with art historical inquiries.

Career

She has published numerous articles and lectured widely on her work. Maryan is the editor of several books on art history methodology, and the principal author or chief collaborator on a number of exhibition catalogues, among them Petrus Christus Renaissance Master of Bruges (1994, Finalist Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Award); From Van Eyck to Bruegel, Early Netherlandish Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1998);

Gerard David Gerard David (c. 1460 – 13 August 1523) was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known. He may have been the Meester ...

, Purity of Vision in an Age of Transition (1998, CINOA Prize and Apollo Books of the Year); Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart’s Renaissance, the Complete Works (2010, Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award), and with Elizabeth Cleland, Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry (2014, AAMC Award for Excellence). German Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1350–1600, co-authored with Joshua Waterman, received the AAMC Award for Excellence (2013). Ainsworth has trained twenty-five graduate art history students in technical art history through The Met’s Slifka Fellowship. In addition, she has served as Adjunct Professor of the History of Art at Barnard College and Columbia University, where since 1986 she has taught a course, taking place at The Met, on paintings connoisseurship and technical art history. In the fall of 2017, Ainsworth was the Robert Janson-La Palme Visiting Professor at Princeton University. In 2018-19, she served as the Kress-Beinecke Professor at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

in Washington, where she worked on a book on The Met’s

s. Maryan’s interdisciplinary studies in technical art history were acknowledged in 1994 with the College Art Association/National Institute for Conservation Joint Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation. For her contributions to the culture and art history of Belgium, she was awarded the Knight of the Order of the Crown in 2001, and the Knight of the Order of Léopold, bestowed by King Albert II of Belgium, in 2011. A participant in many professional organizations, Ainsworth also serves on the board of directors of the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (since 1999), and the King Baudouin Foundation (since 2017). She is a member of the international advisory committees for the research and restoration of notable works by

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oa ...

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...

Bernard van Orley Bernard van Orley (between 1487 and 1491 – 6 January 1541), also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who w ...

Maarten van Heemskerck Maarten van Heemskerck or ''Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen'' (1 June 1498 - 1 October 1574) was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan van Scorel, and adopted his teacher's Itali ...

, and

Jan Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

and

Hubert Hubert is a Germanic masculine given name, from ''hug'' "mind" and '' beraht'' "bright". It also occurs as a surname. Saint Hubertus or Hubert (c. 656 – 30 May 727) is the patron saint of hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers ...

van Eyck’s ''

Ghent Altarpiece The ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'', also called the ''Ghent Altarpiece'' ( nl, De aanbidding van het Lam Gods), is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420 ...

''.

Selected publications

* ''German Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1350—1600''. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013 * * ''Tapestry in the Renaissance: art and magnificence''. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002 * ''Early Netherlandish painting at the crossroads: a critical look at current methodologies''. Yale University Press, 2001 *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ainsworth, Maryan American art historians Living people Women art historians American women historians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) American women curators American curators