Hans Belting

Who is Hans Belting?

Hans Belting is a German art historian and theorist of medieval and Renaissance art, as well as contemporary art and image theory. He was born in Andernach, Germany, and studied at the universities of Mainz and Rome, and took his doctorate in art history at the University of Mainz. Subsequently he has held a fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C..

Belting taught as a professor at the University of Hamburg in 1966. He taught as a professor of art history at the University of Heidelberg, and from 1980 to 1992 as a professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität at Munich. From 1992 until his retirement in 2002, he was professor at the Institute for Art History and Media Theory at the State College of Design in Karlsruhe. From October 2004 until the end of September 2007, Belting served as Director of the Internationalen Forschungszentrums Kulturwissenschaften in Vienna.

Belting is a member of various scientific academies in Germany and the U.S., including the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, and honorary member of the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung Berlin. He is a member of the Order pour le Mérite of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992.