John K.G. Shearman

John K.G. Shearman

William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts, 1987-2002
shearman

John Kinder Gowran Shearman (24 June 1931 – 11 August 2003) served as William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts between 1987-2002.  He was a specialist in Italian Renaissance painting, described by his colleague James S. Ackerman as "the leading scholar of Italian Renaissance painting."

Shearman received his bachelor’s degree at the Courtauld Institute in London, and, under the tutelage of Johannes Wilde, his doctorate.  He joined the faculty there and became Deputy Director before moving to Princeton (1979-1985) and in 1987 to Harvard, becoming two years later the William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts and in 1994 Charles Adams University Professor.

Italian Renaissance painting was his principal interest as a historian, in particular the so-called High Renaissance.  Raphael was a focus throughout his career, as was Michelangelo, the subject of his celebrated Core course at Harvard. He was a counselor and defender of the cleaning and conservation of Michelangelo’s frescos in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican. His interest in conservation and restoration led him to develop an interdisciplinary approach and become directly involved in many conservation projects after the 1966 Florence floods. He helped to organize a Symposium at Princeton subtitled "Science in the Service of Art History.” He also co-taught a class at The Straus Center for Conservation titled “Science and the Practice of Art History.”

He was Chair of the Fine Arts Department from 1990-1993 and served on the Faculty Council and also as a Curator for the renovation of the Faculty Room, taking great pleasure in the latter responsibility. He retired in 2002.