Judson J. Emerick

Professor Emeritus
With Pomona Since: 1973
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Judson Emerick’s research focuses on the interior furnishings of Late Antique and Early Medieval churches in Rome, especially the location and forms of altars, their podia, and the various column screens and barriers surrounding them with their splendid marbles, gold and silver cladding, and sculpted and painted decoration. Reconstructing these liturgical stage sets helps historians understand how, by building, Romans living in the theocracy that we call the Republic of St. Peter, presented and re-presented that state to themselves. 

    Areas of Expertise

    ART HISTORY

    • Late Antique and Early Medieval Art
    • Early Byzantine Art
    • Ancient Roman Imperial Art
    • Hellenistic Art
    • Art and Liturgy
    • History of Art History
  • Work

    Work

    Co-editor and author, "Altars Personified: The Cult of the Saints and the Chapel System in Pope Paschal I’s S. Prassede (817-819)," Essays in Honor of Cecil L.Striker, Mainz-am-Rhein (Philipp von Zabern), November 2005

    "Focusing on the Celebrant: The Column Display inside S. Prassede," Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome: Historical Studies, LIX, 2000, pp.129-159 (actually published December 2001)

    "Ancient Roman Imperial Corinthian Orders in Early Medieval Umbrian Churches: A Standard Christian Architecture in the Region or a Startling New Departure?," Umbria Cristiana: Dalla diffusione del culto al culto dei santi (secc. IV-X), Atti del XV Congresso internazionale di studio sull’alto medioevo, Spoleto 23-28 ottobre 2000, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, Spoleto, pp. 425-448, 2001

    The Tempietto del Clitunno near Spoleto, University Park and London (Penn State University Press, 1998, 2 vols.)

    "Spoleto," Dictionary of Art (Macmillan/Grove, 1996)

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D.
    University of Pennsylvania

    Master of Art
    University of Michigan

    Bachelor of Art
    Hope College

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Hellenistic and Roman Art
    • History of Art History
    • Intro Art Hist: European Mid Age
    • Intro Art History: Ancient World
    • Town/Castle/Cathedral in France
    • Tyrants & Communes in Italy
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Grant to support the publication of my book, The Tempietto del Clitunno near Spoleto, October 1993 (plus a matching grant from Pomona College's Research Committee for the same purpose, December 1993)

    National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship, 1981

    Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Fellow to the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, 1971-73

    University of Pennsylvania, Pennfield Scholar, 1970-71