James Snyder (James E. Snyder) (1928–1990) was 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 ...

, specializing in northern Renaissance art. His ''Northern Renaissance Art'' of 1985 was a standard textbook on the subject for several decades, with a posthumous revised edition in 2005, revised by Larry Silver and Henry Luttikhuizen, being somewhat replaced by

Jeffrey Chipps Smith Jeffrey Chipps Smith is an American art historian specialising in the Northern Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture. He has published a number of prize winning books on art history. In 2005 he wrote the introduction for a reprint of Erwin ...

's ''The Northern Renaissance'' of 2004. Snyder taught at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

from 1964 until his retirement in 1989. He died of liver disease in August 1990, aged 62. He is not to be confused with the American museum director and art historian,

James S. Snyder James Stewart Snyder is an American art historian and museum director. He is director emeritus of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and a senior fellow at the Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School.He is executive chairman of the J ...

(born 1952).

Career

Born in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

, Snyder graduated with a B.A. from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

in 1952, continuing to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

for an M.F.A.in 1955. There he studied under

Kurt Weitzmann Kurt Weitzmann (March 7, 1904, Kleinalmerode (Witzenhausen Witzenhausen is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany. It was granted town rights in 1225, and until 1974, it was a district seat. The University of ...

and it was

Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work represents a hig ...

who suggested the

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

Geertgen tot Sint Jans Geertgen tot Sint Jans (c. 1465 – c. 1495), also known as Geertgen van Haarlem, Gerrit van Haarlem, Gerrit Gerritsz, Gheertgen, Geerrit, Gheerrit, or any other diminutive form of Gerald, was an Early Netherlandish painter from the northern Low ...

as a thesis subject. Still at Princeton, Snyder completed this under Robert Koch in 1958, having had a

Fulbright fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

for 1955–1957. He taught at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

, as an assistant professor from 1957, being promoted associate professor in 1962. In 1964 he moved to Bryn Mawr College, initially as an associate professor, but a full professor of art history in 1969. In 1985 he became Fairbank Professor of Humanities. While at Bryn Mawr he was also a visiting lecturer in art history at Princeton and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. Although Bryn Mawr is a women's college, a later critic said the first edition of Snyder's ''Northern Renaissance Art'' "resorts to gender stereotypes". Awards included the A. Kingsley Porter Prize from the

College Art Association of America The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

in 1960 for his paper on "The Early Haarlem School of Painting". In 1962–1963 he spent a year as a Berenson fellow at Harvard's

Villa I Tatti Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a center for advanced research in the humanities located in Florence, Italy, and belongs to Harvard University. It houses a collection of Italian primitives, and of Chinese and ...

near Florence, on a second Fulbright. He received fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

for 1972–1973 and 1985.Sorensen

Main books

*''Geertgen tot Sint Jans and the Haarlem School of Painting'', Princeton University, 1958 *''Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575'', Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall/Abrams, 1985, . ***2nd edn. 2005, revised by Larry Silver and Henry Luttikhuizen, *''Medieval Art: Painting-Sculpture-Architecture, 4th–14th Century'', New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989. *''Introduction'' to ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 5, The Renaissance in the North'', 1987
online

Notes

References

*"NYT"

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', August 29, 1990 *Sorensen, Lee, ed. "Snyder, James E.. ''Dictionary of Art Historians'' (website)
online
*"Wall"
"Faculty on the Carpenter Library Atrium Wall"
Bryn Mawr College *Wolfthal, Diane. ''Woman's Art Journal'' 15, no. 1 (1994): 49–50. Accessed January 4, 2021. doi:10.2307/1358499
JSTOR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snyder, James American art historians Scholars of Netherlandish art Bryn Mawr College faculty Princeton University alumni University of Michigan faculty University of Colorado alumni People from Peoria, Illinois 1928 births 1990 deaths Historians from Illinois