A distinguished art historian, who has lectured on topics ranging from Michelangelo to modernism, will discuss one of the most renowned artworks of the High Renaissance Friday, April 18, at West Virginia University.

David Summerstalk,The Loftiest Possible Interpretation of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling,is part of the J. Bernard Schultz Lecture Series in Art History. It begins at 5 p.m. in the Creative Arts Centers Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (200A) on the Evansdale Campus. The public is invited to the free event.

Summers, considered one of the master teachers of art history in the country, is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Art Theory and Italian Renaissance Art at the University of Virginia. He has served on the editorial boards of the Art Bulletin, which publishes scholarly research on the history of art and architecture, and the Journal of the History of Ideas.

He wroteThe Sculpture of Vincenzo Danti,Michelangelo and the Language of Art,The Judgment of Sense: Renaissance Naturalism and the Rise of Aesthetics,Real Spaces. World Art History and the Rise of Western ModernismandVision, Reflection and Imagination in Western Painting(forthcoming). He is also completing a manuscript on the High Renaissance program of the Sistine Chapel.

An Idaho native, Summers has a bachelors degree from Brown University and masters and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He taught at Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College and the University of Pittsburgh before accepting an appointment to the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Virginia in 1981. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996 and is also a painter.

The J. Bernard Schultz Lecture Series in Art History was endowed in the College of Creative Arts in 2004. The series honors College of Creative Arts Dean Bernie Schultz, who is also a professor of art history in the Division of Art and director of the Creative Arts Center.

Each year, the lecture series brings a leading art historian to WVU to enhance the art history program, as well as engage the intellectual life of the University. Previous lecturers have included Joann Moser, curator of graphic arts at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and David Wilkins, professor emeritus of art history at the University of Pittsburgh.

The J. Bernard Schultz Lecture Series in Art History endowment was created through the WVU Foundation, a private, nonprofit corporation that generates and provides support for WVU .

For more information about the lecture, contact the WVU College of Creative Arts at 304-293-4841 ext. 3108.