John Beldon Scott is an American art historian. He is currently teaching at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

.

Education

Scott received his B.A. from Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 (1968) and spent four years in the Air Force

Air force

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...

 (1969–1973) before receiving his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 (1975, 1982). He also spent a year pursuing graduate work in history at the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, Santa Barbara. His field of teaching and research is the art and architecture of early modern Italy.

Works & Research

His publications include: Images of Nepotism: The Painted Ceilings of Palazzo Barberini (Princeton, 1991) and Architecture for the Shroud: Relic and Ritual in Turin (Chicago, 2003). He has also co-authored The University of Iowa Guide to Campus Architecture (Iowa City, 2006). His articles have appeared in The Art Bulletin, The Burlington Magazine

The Burlington Magazine

The Burlington Magazine is a monthly academic journal that covers the fine and decorative arts. It is the longest running art journal in the English language and it is a charitable organisation since 1986. It was established in 1903 by a group of art historians and connoisseurs which included Roger...

, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Storia dell’Arte, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

Scott's interests include studies of Borromini, Guarini

Guarini

Guarini is the name of several people:* Giovanni Battista Guarini , Italian poet and diplomat* Anna Guarini, Contessa Trotti, , Italian virtuoso singer of the late Renaissance...

, Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...

, Annibale Carracci

Annibale Carracci

Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...

, Bernini, the patronage of the Barberini

Barberini

The Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII...

 family, and urbanism in early modern Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

. Scott is currently preparing a study of urbanism and ritual in totalitarian regimes.

Methodology

Scott is interested in the meaning of art in a historical context, especially in its political, social, and economic manifestations. His teaching style and research also embraces the social history of art and interactions between architecture and ritual. Generally, Scott is a social art historian, although his interests are not just limited to the influence of history and culture on the creation or viewing of the object. Along with historial and social circumstances, Scott also tries to make sense of the image by intently studying the iconography of the image along with its visual properties.

Erwin Panofsky

Erwin Panofsky

Erwin Panofsky was a German art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography...

, Ernst Gombrich

Ernst Gombrich

Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich, OM, CBE was an Austrian-born art historian who became naturalized British citizen in 1947. He spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom...

, and Francis Haskell

Francis Haskell

Francis Haskell was an English art historian, whose writings placed emphasis on the social history of art.He read history at King's College, Cambridge and became a Fellow there in 1954...

 were strong formative influences. Scott's earliest publications, including his first book, Images of Nepotism make this influence apparent. Later in his career, patronage and audience begin to be of concern, but social history is still his dominant methodological bias. Scott, like many art historians, is committed to the essential role of archival research and the relentless visual analysis of the image; this strength for visual analysis is especially apparent in his work.

Honors

Scott has been a fellow at the American Academy in Rome, the National Humanities Center, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Stanford Humanities Center. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians (1997–2000). He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study

Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...

 in Princeton

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...

. The book, Architecture for the Shroud: Relic and Ritual in Turin was awarded the 2004 College Art Association Charles Rufus Morey Prize.