John Onians, BA PhD FSA, (born 1942) is Professor Emeritus of World Art at the University of East Anglia

University of East Anglia

The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...

, Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 and specialised in architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

, especially the architectural theory of the Italian Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

; painting, sculpture and architecture in Ancient Greece and Rome; Byzantine art

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

, material culture

Material culture

In the social sciences, material culture is a term that refers to the relationship between artifacts and social relations. Studying a culture's relationship to materiality is a lens through which social and cultural attitudes can be discussed...

, metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

 and thought; perception

Perception

Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...

 and cognition

Cognition

In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...

, and the biological basis of art. His recent work has been instrumental in the establishment of Neuroarthistory

Neuroarthistory

Neuroarthistory is a term coined by Professor John Onians, an art historian at the University of East Anglia in 2005. Neuroarthistory is an approach that concerns the neurological study of artists, both living and dead....

 as a distinct set of methodologies.

Biography

Onians is graduate of the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, and of the Courtauld Institute of Art

Courtauld Institute of Art

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...

 and Warburg Institute

Warburg Institute

The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of the influence of classical antiquity on all aspects of European civilisation.-History:The Institute was founded by...

s of the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

, at the latter of which he was a PhD student of 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...

. He was Founder Editor of the journal Art History in 1978. He taught at the University of East Anglia

University of East Anglia

The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...

 from 1971 until his retirement in 2007 where he was instrumental in the development of the Art History department, and the creation of the School of World Art Studies and Museology

School of World Art Studies and Museology

The School of World Art Studies and Museology at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom was founded in 1964. It was originally called the School of Fine Arts and Music and later became the School of Art History and Music, before taking on its present name. It focuses on the study of...

.

He has authored four books Art and the Thought in the Hellenistic Age, Bearers of Meaning, Classical Art and the Cultures of Greece and Rome, and Neuroarthistory: From Aristotle and Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki (2008). He has edited Sight and Insight, Atlas of World Art, and Compression Vs. Expression.

Onians has been discussed in books such as Art History and its Methods (1995) and Raising the Eyebrow (2002).