It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Professor emerita Ilene H. Forsyth, distinguished medievalist, longtime member of the Department of the History of Art (1962-1997), a highly regarded teacher awarded an Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship, and singularly generous patron to whom we owe much. A student of Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University (MA 1955, PhD 1960), her dissertation research was incorporated into the landmark book The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton University Press, 1972), winner of the Charles Rufus Morey Prize from the College Art Association. A foremost scholar of twelfth-century European sculpture, she is responsible for a series of studies at once bold and well-grounded extending from "The Ganymede Capital at Vézelay" (1976) and "The Theme of Cockfighting in Burgundian Romanesque Sculpture" (1978) to "Narrative at Moissac: Schapiro's Legacy" (2002) and "George H. Forsyth and the Sacred Fortress at Sinai" (2016). Forsyth's philanthropy is unmatched in the history of the department. We have benefited from the endowment of two professorships, graduate student fellowships, a lecture series, and abundant travel and research funds. Her many achievements will be celebrated in memorials published by the Medieval Academy of America and the International Center of Medieval Art.
