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DAVID ROSAND Obituary
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Memories and Condolences
for DAVID ROSAND
Mary Edwards
August 4, 2025
Professor Rosand was the third art history "reader" of my disstertation. At the defense, where he served as Chair, for some reason we ended up facining each other at the short ends of a long table. The other four readers were on the long sides of the table. This accidental configuration made me feel like we were parents at a dinner table with the "children" on the sides; this boosted my confidence, since one reader told me as we walked in that he had not read my thesis; then he asked obnoxious questions throughout the process. Thankfully, DR chaired the meeting with grace and dignity! And I earned a High Pass.
John Markowitz
August 3, 2025
Last June I returned to Venice for a visit and of course thought of David. I made a point of seeking out Casa Muraro, although we were unable to get inside. Such a beautiful city, and amongst the good memories it evokes is being a student of David's. He has certainly helped me to appreciate its art, and art more generally.
John Markowitz
August 3, 2024
David was one of my favorite professors as an undergraduate and art history graduate student, a kind and supportive mentor at a time I needed one. Through no fault of his, I left art history with a Master's degree when I transferred to Columbia medical school in 1978. Years later, when I served on the Program Committee of the American Psychiatric Association and had the opportunity to invite plenary speakers to the Annual Meeting, I chose David, who gave a great presentation on "The Meaning of the Mark" to a packed auditorium in San Francisco. Afterwards we had lunch at a fine local Italian restaurant. It's a very fond memory.
I was just back in Venice last month. In the Accademia, I found myself in front of Tintoretto's Miracle of the Slave. While a graduate student, I was also taking pre-med physics, which led to my writing a paper for David about the influence of torque, or rotational force, in Tintoretto's work. He was always curious and open to new angles, so we had fun with it.
Martin Geller
August 3, 2023
One of the most stunning memories of my life is that of walking across Piazza San Marco in Venice and suddenly seeing his stunning face smiling up at me from a dining table.
Martin Geller
August 3, 2021
David remains enshrined in my memory from our years together on Jester of Columbia... a brilliant artist and brilliant human being. Also, in 1962, strolling through Piazza San Marco while returning from a medical school elective in Liberia, and, as the flock of pigeons scattered, there, seated at a cafe table, is DAVID...What a wonderful surprise!
.
Jandava Cattron/Colescott
September 2, 2014
David Rosand indulged my fledgling Veronese queries in 1996, during one of his famous Titian Seminars at Columbia. By 1997, my late husband, Robert Colescott (1925-2009), had opened his solo exhibition at the 47th Venice Biennale (U.S. Pavilion) and our dash to complete and show another - his last - decade of work had begun. Even though it took until 2011 (at Frederick Ilchman and Virginia Brilliant's Veronese Symposium, in Sarasota FL) to revisit that 1996 conversation - a group of scholars, had, by then, reopened Veronese's oeuvre for all the world to see. We are grateful. David Rosand's generous efforts and earnest, unstinting scholarship are inspirational. My heart goes out to his widow and my deepest condolences to the family.
Robert Solomon
September 2, 2014
The alumni of Camps Mohican-Reena in Palmer, Mass. mourn the loss of their fellow camper.
James Ackermnan
August 26, 2014
As an older scholar, I have always followed David's worik with admiration and pleasure; We shared a bond with another brilliant colleague in Venice, Michelangelo Muraro, whose house was a home away from home, and was willed to the community. David has devoted a great amount of energy and concern to fulfill Mic's hope that the house and library can be preserved intact for the benefit of art historians of all ages and nations..
Robert Torchia
August 24, 2014
I took his survey of Venetian High Renaissance art at Columbia during the early 1980s. First class person.
Martin Geller
August 21, 2014
I worked happily with David on Jester of Columbia in the Class of 1959 and was lucky enough to run into him on Piazza San Marco in 1963. I was a guest at his home a few years ago and, though I have never been an academic colleague, I am greatly saddened by his loss as a friend. I treasure examples of his undergraduate art work in my home, in old copies of Jester.
Matthias Wivel
August 19, 2014
Mentor, Mover, Mensch
Hilary Kaplan
August 19, 2014
I can't think about David without smiling as I recall his keen wit and word plays that for me, will remain legendary. My heartfelt condolences at this very sad time.
Frederick Ilchman
August 19, 2014
So much comes to mind when remembering Professor David Rosand. He was eloquent, committed, tireless. The twinkle in his eye when he was pressing a point in a seminar, or standing in front of a painting he loved (and may have understood better than anyone). Devoted mentor, cherished colleague, dear friend. David Rosand meant so much to so many people. We are all very lucky to have known him. In this period of sorrow, it offers us some consolation to realize just how many of us, that is students of David Rosand, there are. By this I mean not just those who studied with him at Columbia or during his various guest teaching appointments, but all those who heard him lecture at conferences or for Save Venice, or savored the rhetorical elegance of his remarkable books and articles, or even simply enjoyed his spontaneous yet also thoughtful observations in front of works of art in Venice. All of his students miss terribly. But we will recall him often, and with a smile. My condolences to Ellen and the family.
Joanna Woods-Marsden
August 16, 2014
David was a wonderful scholar and a great human being who will be sorely missed by all in Italian Renaissance studies. My deepest condolences to his family.
Joanna Woods-Marsden
Georgia Cowart
August 13, 2014
I knew David's work for decades before meeting him in person, and feel so fortunate to have had that opportunity at the Paragone conference in 2009. I will never look at Titian the same way again. Ellen, I am also grateful for the ways in which my life has been touched by you and your work. You are in my thoughts, and I am deeply sorry for your loss.
Deborah Walberg
August 13, 2014
David was an inestimable scholar- an art historian of the highest calibration. But to me his qualities as a human being surpass his academic accomplishments. He was a kind man who offered his expertise, kindness and wisdom not only to his own students, but to several generations of budding scholars worldwide. He was a rarity in the new academe - a very classy man.
August 12, 2014
David was a great scholar and wonderful human being. I feel so fortunate in having known him. His passing is a great loss to us all. My sincere condolences to Ellen and the family.
Patricia Fortini Brown (Princeton, NJ)
Robert Kendrick
August 12, 2014
A scholar who added so much to our knowledge of Renaissance Venice, and who will be sorely missed.
Larry Goedde
August 11, 2014
David was such an important figure in my life and career--I owe him so much, more than I could ever repay, and I've tried to do for my own graduate students what he did for me. My very sincere condolences to his family.
John Markowitz
August 11, 2014
David was an enthusiastic, cultured scholar and a wise and kind man, an expert on colore who proved a great mentor for a colorblind art history graduate student. He was one professor I stayed in touch with after going into medicine. Though he has a permanent place in my mind and heart, I'll miss him.
Evelyn Karet
August 11, 2014
To the Family of David Rosand
David was an inspiring teacher and dedicated scholar. He shall be sorely missed by his former students and colleagues at Columbia. His extraordinary research will remain to inspire future generations. My heartfelt sympathies to all of you.
Evelyn Karet
Deborah Stott
August 11, 2014
At a mid- and rather low - point in my career, David rekindled my love of art history and scholarship. I will always be grateful for his support and friendship. My most sincere condolences to his family.
Kris Juncker
August 11, 2014
Professor Rosand called me to let me know that I was accepted into the PhD program at Columbia. He had said that it was one of his most favourite parts of his job. Although I was slightly overwhelmed at the prospect, he sounded so excited! I never had the opportunity to take classes with him (only saw the occasional talk), but I will always remember his encouraging smiles and his light-footed, almost rhythmic, step as he glided about the University.
Walter Cahn
August 10, 2014
My heartfelt condolences!
Mary Edwards
August 10, 2014
The breadth and depth of David's research was phenomenal and he was so very generous to other scholars. He will be sorely missed. My deepest sympathy to the family.
Mary Bergstein-Massi
August 10, 2014
I am so sorry. I learned so much from David Rosand. He was a wonderful teacher at the right time in my life. Coraggio.
Anna Spiro
August 10, 2014
Although many people will remember Professor Rosand for his immense erudition, I will remember his sense of humor, manifested as he weighed my dissertation in his hand, but even more memorably in his work as a cartoonist for the Columbia humor magazine "Jester," notably the iconic image of the jester seated, drawing at his desk, which in 1964 I copied on the pink door of the "Jester" office in then Ferris Booth Hall.
My heartfelt condolences.
Anna Spiro
New York, N.Y.
Paula Carabell
August 10, 2014
I am so, so sorry for your loss; David will truly be missed by a great many. David was, and will always be, one of the most influential people in my life, starting off as my mentor at Columbia and finally being a friend and colleague. I know how much he loved his family and I know that your grief is immense. I share in some of this sadness and am thinking of you and, of course, of David, in this time of loss.
Ronald Musto
August 9, 2014
We are sorry for your loss.
Christiane Andersson
August 9, 2014
David's humor, erudition, excellent judgment and his kindness to younger colleagues, such as myself when teaching at Columbia, will be vividly and fondly remembered.
August 9, 2014
To the Rosand family: Sorry for your loss. Please know that at times such as these God is near those broken at heart. He will be with your family at this difficult time. (1 Peter 5 : 10 )
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