Paul Barolsky

Commonwealth Professor at the University of Virginia where he has taught the history of Italian Renaissance art and literature since 1969, Paul Barolsky focuses in his courses on the playfulness of art. His books include Infinite Jest: Wit and Humor in Italian Renaissance Art (1978), and the trilogy Michelangelo’s Nose: A Myth and its Maker (1990), Why Mona Lisa Smiles and Other Tales by Vasari (1991), and Giotto’s Father and the Family of Vasari’s Lives (1992). His most recent book is A Brief History of the Artist from God to Picasso (2010). He is especially passionate about Ovid, Dante, Castiglione, Vasari, Pater, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Titian, and Bernini. His favorite painter is Matisse.