John Varriano

1943 - 2016

GRANBY - Author and art historian John Varriano died Jan. 26, 2016, of an acute blood disease, at his home overlooking the Mount Holyoke range.

A professor at Mount Holyoke College for four decades, John chaired the department of art and art history for four terms and was a noted expert on the art and architecture of Italy in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. His fields of study also included the intersection of art and gastronomy as well as the art and literature of travel.

In 1994, John was named the Idella Plimpton Kendall Professor of Art History, endowed in the name of the first Mount Holyoke student to officially study abroad. Over his many years at the college, he encouraged his students to do the same, and to travel whenever and wherever possible.

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, John spent his earliest years in Cuba where his father was a surgeon stationed at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. He attended the Trinity School in New York City and received his doctorate from the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate at Michigan, John majored in English, planning to become a writer. Encounters with the dynamic art history professor Nathan T. Whitman, however, changed his trajectory, and he went on to complete his dissertation as a Kress Fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome.

In his career as an art historian, he produced more than 50 articles and six well-regarded books. His Italian Baroque and Rococo Architecture was published by Oxford University Press in 1986, followed in 1991 by Rome, A Literary Companion, praised by Travel & Leisure magazine as "the best literary guide to the Eternal City." He followed this with Caravaggio: The Art of Realism (2006), Tastes and Temptations: Food and Art in Renaissance Italy (2009), and Wine: A Cultural History (2011). His most recent offering, Edward Lear in Malta (2014), was accompanied by an exhibition at the Palazzo Falson Museum in Malta, "Edward Lear: Watercolours and Words," investigating the artist's work and life on that Mediterranean island.

A dedicated supporter of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, he organized numerous major exhibitions and advised on acquisitions for the permanent collection. It was at the museum that John met his wife of 40 years, Wendy Watson, as one of the department members who interviewed her for the position of curator. Together they toured museums, galleries, and archaeological sites around the world, spending a portion of each summer in Rome then heading north to Torre Gentile, a small village in Umbria, living in what John described as "a renovated ruined stone tower with terrific views."

As an emeritus professor since 2009, John devoted himself to drawing and painting as well as writing, chronicling his travels in sketchbooks and paintings. His interest in the Grand Tour and in historical travel journals and sketchbooks inspired him to compile his own.

With his penchant for colorful socks and scarves, and John believed, along with Giorgio Armani, that "Elegance is not about being noticed, it's about being remembered." An avid cyclist and tennis player, he could also be seen driving about town in his British racing green Morgan.

Throughout his life, John did his best to embody the Renaissance ideal of sprezzatura-that combination of elegance, grace, and nonchalance described in Castiglione's 1528 The Book of the Courtier. A gregarious host and generous friend, he and his wife held lively dinner parties taking particular joy in introducing wonderful people to one another. John was equally generous with his Mount Holyoke students, many of whom remained friends long after graduation. He was an excellent mentor to these students and to other academic friends in various phases of their careers.

After learning of his illness, John decided to spend as much time possible writing, drawing, travelling and sitting down with friends at a well-provisioned table. For five years, he managed to outrun his diagnosis with a daily regimen of curiosity and brio. His philosophy of life is best summed up by these lines from Nikos Kazantzakis' Report to Greco: "We must leave the earth, not like scourged, tearful slaves, but like kings who rise from the table with no further wants, after having eaten and drunk to the full."

John will be greatly missed by his wife Wendy; his dear friend and former student Nora Lambert; his many friends and colleagues; and his beloved Briard, Cennino Cennini.

A memorial celebration will be held in Granby later this spring. 

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