William Levin

BIOGRAPHY

William R. Levin is a professor emeritus of art history at Centre College, where he taught from1986 to 2010. 

An art historian with wide-ranging interests, Professor Levin taught courses and seminars covering the entire chronology of the Western artistic tradition. During the years in which he was actively engaged in teaching, students frequently commended the depth, logic, clarity, and enthusiasm of his instruction, and the humanity that he demonstrated as a mentor. He has particular expertise in Italian art and architecture—its styles and symbolism—from 1100 to 1650, benefiting considerably from personal experience and first-hand observations made during the period 1976-81, when he lived and taught in Italy.

Numerous subsequent visits and residencies there have enhanced Professor Levin’s familiarity with Italian art. Both at home and in Italy, he has continued his long-standing research into the art and history of late-medieval and Renaissance philanthropic institutions principally in Central Italy, especially those in Florence, and more generally his study of works of art dealing with the concept of charity, including those influenced by Saint Francis of Assisi and his followers. Concurrently he has been exploring the integrated program of sculpture articulating the exteriors of the several buildings clustered on Florence’s Piazza del Duomo.  

Over the years, Professor Levin has delivered several dozen specialized papers on, among other topics, institutional philanthropy in Italy, representations of charity, and the sculptures of the Florentine ecclesiastical center, both at other colleges and universities and as a frequent participant at professional conferences. Included among the latter are annual meetings of the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the Southeastern College Art Conference (renamed SECAC), the South-Central Renaissance Conference, the Midwest Art History Society, the Medieval Association of the Midwest, the Renaissance Society of America, and the College Art Association.

He is currently working on a series of scholarly articles on these themes, twenty of which have appeared to date in various juried academic journals and thematic anthologies, and he has published a much-cited book that attracted several favorable peer reviews on the art and history of the Florentine Misericordia, the Confraternity of Mercy, a major beneficent foundation. A two-term former director of the Southeastern College Art Conference and former member of the editorial board of its annual scholarly journal, Professor Levin has also chaired and served on various committees within that organization as well as on others within the Italian Art Society.

For over a decade and a half, he was a reader for the high-school advanced placement examination in art history for the College Board and the Educational Testing Service. He was nominated and selected for inclusion in Who’s Who in America beginning in 2008 and Who’s Who in the World beginning in 2009. The Southeastern College Art Conference honored him in 2004 with its Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication, in 2010 with its Award for Excellence in Teaching as well as its Award for Exemplary Achievement, and in 2020 he received that organization’s presidential Service to the Arts Award. In 2013 and again in 2018, with an endowment funded in perpetuity, SECAC established the William R. Levin Awards for Research in the History of Art, generous fellowships granted annually to applicants among the membership of the association to encourage, recognize, and aid in furthering their scholarly pursuits.  

Professor Levin is the author of Images of Love and Death in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1976), and The Allegory of Mercy at the Misericordia in Florence: Historiography, Context, Iconography, and the Documentation of Confraternal Charity in the Trecento (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004). It is for the latter book that he received the Southeastern College Art Conference's 2004 Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication. In addition, on a number of occasions leading academic journals have asked Professor Levin to assess articles and volumes authored by other scholars pertaining to his areas of expertise, both preliminary to and following their publication. Most recently in this regard, he authored a review essay of Politiche di misericordia tra teoria e prassi: Confraternite, ospedali e Monti di Pietà (XIII-XVI secolo), edited by Pietro Delcorno (Bologna: Società Editrice Il Mulino, 2018), which appears in The Catholic Historical Review (2022). Early in his retirement, too, Professor Levin turned to the topic of nineteenth-century American architecture, authoring a booklet on a local National Historic Landmark titled Jacobs Hall, Kentucky School for the Deaf, Danville, Kentucky (Danville, KY: Jacobs Hall Museum, 2014), an abbreviated version of which (2017) appears on the website of the Society of Architectural Historians.  

Professor Levin earned a B.A. in history from Northwestern University, where he was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the history of art from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the Centre College faculty, he was an assistant professor of art history at Mankato State University in Minnesota. He now holds an ad-hoc appointment to the graduate faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville.  

To read about Professor Levin’s receipt of the Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Award for Exemplary Achievement at the 2010 meeting of the Southeastern College Art Conference, click here. For the video recording of his panel presentation along with further discussion held at that organization’s meeting the following year, in which he succinctly outlines his philosophy on effective teaching and mentoring, click here and then type “Levin” into the search bar, and then click on the large icon bearing the title “The Art of Education.” To access the text only of Professor Levin’s panel presentation, click here. 

AWARDS/GRANTS

Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha of Illinois, Northwestern University, 1970
University of Michigan Teaching Assistantships for Survey Courses in Western Art from 1300 to the Present, 1973, 1974
Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowship, University of Michigan, 1975
National Endowment for the Arts Grant Beneficiary, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1975
International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation Fellowship to Italy, 1976-1977
University of Michigan-Sarah Lawrence College Summer Program in Florence Teaching Assistantship, 1977
College Art Association of America Travel Grant, February 1986
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Beneficiary, Centre College, Summer 1986
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Beneficiary, Centre College, Summer 1987
University of Michigan-Sarah Lawrence College Summer Program in Florence Professorship, 1988
National Endowment for the Humanities/Eli Lilly Foundation Grant Beneficiary, Centre College, February 1990
Centre College Dean's Discretionary Fund Travel Grant, March 1990
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Beneficiary, Centre College, Summer 1990
Centre College Dean's Discretionary Fund Travel Grant, May 1991
Centre College Dean's Discretionary Fund Publication Assistance Grant, Summer 1991
Centre College Humanities Division Chair's Discretionary Fund Publication Assistance Grant, Summer 1991
University of Georgia Summer Program in Cortona Professorship, 1992
Knight Foundation Grant Beneficiary, Centre College, June 1992
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Beneficiary, Centre College, December 1992
University of Michigan Department of the History of Art Travel Grant, May 1993
Sabbatical year in Florence, Centre College, September 1993-July 1994
Centre College Dean's Discretionary Fund Publication Assistance Grant, May 1995
Centre College Dean's Discretionary Fund Travel Grant, May 1996
Centre College Dean's Discretionary Fund Grant Beneficiary, March-April 1997
Sabbatical year in Danville, Kentucky, and Florence; Centre College, September 2000-July 2001
Centre Scholar (Centre College two-year endowed professorship), Fall 2001-Summer 2003
Centre College Associate Dean's Discretionary Fund Publication Assistance Grant, Summer 2003
Southeastern College Art Conference Award for Excellence in Scholarly Research and Publication, 2004
H. W. Stodghill and Adele Stodghill Research Professorship, Centre College, Fall 2006
Centre College Deans Discretionary Fund Travel Grant, March 2007
Who's Who in America (biographical profile in recognition of professional accomplishments), 62nd edition (vol. 1, p. 2774), 2008; continued in subsequent annual editions
Sabbatical year in Danville, Kentucky; Centre College, September 2008-July 2009
Julius Fund Lecturer in Renaissance Art, Cleveland Museum of Art in association with the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, November 2008
Henry P. Tappan Society, University of Michigan, 2009 ff.
Who's Who in the World (biographical profile in recognition of professional accomplishments), 26th edition 2009; continued in subsequent annual editions
Southeastern College Art Conference Award for Exemplary Achievement, 2010
Southeastern College Art Conference Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2010
Harry B. Hutchins Society, University of Michigan, 2011
Northwestern University Leadership Circle, 2012
Deering Society, Northwestern University Library, 2012
NU Loyal, Northwestern University, 2015 ff. (Platinum level, 2016 ff.)
Twenty-Third Annual Arkansas College Art History Symposium Keynote Lecturer and Commentator, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas, March 2013
Emeritus membership, South-Central Renaissance Conference, 2018
The Marquis Who's Who Publications Board Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018
Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) Presidential Award for Service to the Arts, 2020
Louis L. Martz Plenary Lecturer, South-Central Renaissance Conference / Society for Renaissance Art History, March 2022 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS/MEMBERSHIPS

College Art Association, New York
Midwest Art History Society, Worthington, Ohio
Southeastern College Art Conference, Wilmington, Delaware (renamed SECAC)
International Center of Medieval Art, New York
Italian Art Society, Latham, New York
Medieval Institute, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Medieval Association of the Midwest, Greeley, Colorado
South-Central Renaissance Conference, Saint Louis, Missouri
Society for Renaissance Art History, Ocala, Florida
Society for Confraternity Studies, Toronto
Association for Textual Scholarship in Art History, Ocala, Florida
Trecento Forum, Houston
Smithsonian Institution, Washington
National Geographic Society, Washington
National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia
Phi Beta Kappa Society, Washington
Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity Foundation, Memphis
Alumni of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation Overseas Fellowships Program, New York
Deering Society, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (formerly The Library Council)
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (past member)
J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville
University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington
Cincinnati Art Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts
Northwestern University Club of Louisville
University of Michigan Alumni Association/Michigan Club of the Bluegrass, Lexington, Kentucky
Arts Commission of Danville-Boyle County (Kentucky)
Art Center of the Bluegrass, Danville, Kentucky
Heart of Danville (Kentucky) Main Street Program
Friends of the Boyle County (Kentucky) Public Library
Danville-Boyle County (Kentucky) Historical Society (past member)
Mankato (Minnesota) Area Arts Council (past member)
Minneapolis Society of the Fine Arts (past member) 

COURSES TAUGHT

Undergraduate and Graduate
Classical Art
Medieval Art
Northern Gothic and Renaissance Art
Italian Gothic and Renaissance Art 
The Quattrocento 
Northern Mannerist and Baroque Art
Southern Mannerist and Baroque Art 
Rococo to Realism
Modern Art
Survey Courses
Introduction to Art 
Prehistoric through High Medieval Art 
Late Medieval through Modern Art
Interdisciplinary Courses
Humanities I:  The Ancient Greek and Roman World 
Humanities II
The Renaissance and Baroque World 
Seminars
Early Italian Painting and Sculpture 
Masters of the Northern Renaissance
Donatello and Michelangelo 
Nineteenth-Century French Art
Summer Study Courses for Undergraduate and Graduate Students in Italy
The Art and Architecture of Rome and Florence 
Florentine Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture of the Renaissance 

PUBLICATIONS

Please refer to Dr. Levin's CV for a complete list of publications.

View CV