SHERMAN, TEXAS — Austin College recognized teaching excellence at its annual Honors Convocation this spring in addition to the awarding of more than 60 student scholarship and fellowships. “It is appropriate on this occasion of honoring students for their superior academic achievements, that we also recognize faculty for their distinguished contributions to the intellectual life of this community and their roles in fostering student growth,” said Dr. Michael Imhoff, vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of the faculty.
President Oscar C. Page introduced Jeffrey Fontana for installation in the Harry E. Smith Distinguished Teaching Professorship in Art History. Fontana joined the Austin College faculty in 2002 as assistant professor of art history and was promoted in 2007 to associate professor. Fontana received his B.A. from Oberlin College and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in art history at Boston University. Before coming to Austin College, he taught at institutions including Colgate University, Vassar College, and Florida State University, and taught summer courses for Boston College in Florence, Italy. He was a Straus Intern in the drawing department at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, where he curated the 1999 exhibition, “Timeless Beauty: Representing the Ideal in Neoclassical Drawing.”
Fontana’s research reflects his interests in issues of patronage and the intersection of artistic theory and practice. He has focused on the career of Federico Barocci (c. 1535-1612), on whom he wrote his dissertation “Federico Barocci: Imitation and the Formation of Artistic Identity.” In this study, he examined Barocci’s early paintings and the way the painter self-consciously shaped his style according to sixteenth-century practices and theoretical concepts of imitation. Jeff finds artists’ sketches and preparatory studies especially rich in potential insights, and has published articles on drawings by Barocci and by Fra Bartolommeo in The Burlington Magazine and Master Drawings. He also is involved in projects involving the Italian response to Netherlandish painting from circa 1470-1510, and the significance of Italian Renaissance art in the United States and France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Board of Trustees voted in June 1994 to name an art history professorship in honor of then-retiring Harry E. Smith, 13th president of Austin College. The Harry E. Smith Distinguished Endowed Teaching Professorship in Art History at Austin College was established in 1994 through a gift from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as gifts from family and friends of Dr. Smith. The purpose of the fund enhances the educational programming at Austin College by providing annual support to offset the costs of compensation, benefits, research, and teaching for an Austin College faculty member in the field of art history.
Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges that Change Lives.
