Wayne Franits

Distinguished Professor and Chair

CONTACT

Art and Music Histories
308 B Bowne Hall
Email: wefranit@syr.edu
Office: 315.443.5038

PROGRAM AFFILIATIONS

Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Degrees

Ph. D. Art History, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1987

M. A. Art History, Queens College, City University of New York, 1981

B. A. Art History, State University of New York @ Stonybrook, 1978

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

Paper Arts in the Low Countries, 1400-1700
Baroque Art in Northern Europe
Baroque Art in Southern Europe
Art in Eighteenth-Century Europe
Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting

Graduate

Problems of Meaning and Interpretation in Northern European Art, 1400-1700
Paper Arts in the Low Countries, 1400-1700
Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting
Vermeer and Dutch Genre Painting
Rembrandt and His Workshop
Caravaggio and Caravaggism in Europe
Art & Patronage in England, 1558-1702

Research Interests

Wayne Franits is a specialist in seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art. His extensive publications have explored a variety of topics within the field, ranging from genre painting and portraiture to the work of the Dutch followers of Caravaggio. Franits's courses, particularly those on the M.A. level, tend to be tied to his research interests. In recent years, Franits has published books on the early seventeenth-century Dutch painters, Johannes Vermeer (2015) and Godefridus Schalcken (2018 and 2023) as well as The Ashgate Research Companion to Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century (2016).

He is currently pursuing research on late seventeenth-century art collections in English country houses and on the art of Rembrandt during his early career in relation to contemporary genre painting.

Wayne Franits examining a large painting

Books

Godefridus Schalcken: A Late 17th-century Dutch Painter in Pursuit of Fame and Fortune

Godefridus Schalcken: A Late 17th-century Dutch Painter in Pursuit of Fame and Fortune, by Wayne Franits, Lund Humphries (May 26, 2023), 168pp., ISBN-13: 978-1848225466
Godefridus Schalcken; A Dutch Painter in Late Seventeenth-Century London

Godefridus Schalcken; A Dutch Painter in Late Seventeenth-Century London, by Wayne Franits, Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2018, 288 pp., 86 color illus.
The Ashgate Research Companion to Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century

The Ashgate Research Companion to Dutch Art of the Seventeenth-Century, by Wayne Franits, New York/ London: Routledge, 2016, xx + 478 pp., 91 black-and-white illus.
Vermeer

Vermeer, by Wayne Franits, London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2015, 352 pp., 124 color illus.
The Paintings of Dirck van Baburen (ca. 1592/93–1624): Catalogue Raisonné

The Paintings of Dirck van Baburen ca. 1592/93-1624: Catalogue Raisonné, by Wayne Franits, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2013, xx, 388 pp., 114 black-and-white illus., 15 color illus.
The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588–1629): Catalogue raisonné

The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen 1588-1629: Catalogue Raisonné, by Wayne Franits, [Co-author with Leonard J. Slatkes], Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007, xix + 468 pp., 204 black-and-white illus., 17 color illus.
Pieter de Hooch: A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy

Pieter de Hooch: A Woman Preparing Bread and Butter for a Boy (Getty Museum Studies of Art), by Wayne Franits, Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006, 86 pp., 24 black-and-white illus., 34 color illus.
Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution

Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution, by Wayne Franits, London/ New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004, viii + 328 pp., 166 black-and-white illus., 70 color illus.
The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer

The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer, by Wayne E. Franits (Editor) Cambridge/ New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, xxiv + 241 pp., 103 black-and-white illus., fold-out map. An edited collection of 10 reprinted and new essays concerning the art and life of Johannes Vermeer (1632-75); published in hardback and paperback simultaneously.
Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art: Realism Reconsidered

Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting; Realism Reconsidered, by Wayne Franits (editor), Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xviii + 274 pp., 122 black-and-white illus. An edited collection of 14 reprinted and new essays addressing problems of realism, meaning and interpretation in seventeenth-centuryDutch painting.
Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in 17th Century Dutch Art

Paragons of Virtue; Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art, by Wayne Franits, Cambridge/ New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993, xx + 271 pp., 172 black-and-white illus.

Recent Essays

“The Lure of the South (Review of the Bentvueghels exhibition in Utrecht and the Rombouts exhibition in Ghent),” The Burlington Magazine 165 (August 2023), pp. 874-81.

“Review of Exhib. cat. Vermeer, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 2023,” Renaissance Studies 37 no. 4 (2023), pp. 609-20.

"Review of Gregor J. M. Weber, Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light and Reflection,@ HNA Review of Books, posted electronically, April 2023.

"Theodoor Rombouts; A Performer in His Own Paintings," by Wayne Franits, in: exhib. cat. Theodoor Rombouts (1597-1637). Virtuoso of Flemish Caravaggism, ed. Frederica van Dam, Ghent, Belgium: Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 2023, pp. 70-79.

"Utrecht Painters from the Hohenbuchau Collection," by Wayne Franits, in: Johann Kräfter, ed., The Hohenbuchau Collection; A Supplement, Vienna, Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections, 2022, pp. 86-97.

News

Sparking Dialogue

(Jan. 14, 2020)

Professor Wayne Franits, Professor Joan Bryant and Julia Jessen G'20 curate exhibitions.

Art Historian Appointed Distinguished Professor

(Feb. 1, 2017)

Syracuse University recognizes professor Franits for his tremendous scholarly contributions and intellectual leadership

Art Historian Lectures on Dutch Genre Painting in the Hague

(Jan. 9, 2017)

Wayne Franits shared his expertise in 17th-century Dutch art this past December

Scholarly Detective Work Uncovers Piece by 17th-Century Artist

(Oct. 27, 2015)