John Onians

John Onians, FSA (born 1942) is Professor Emeritus of World Art at the University of East Anglia, Norwich and specialised in architecture, especially the architectural theory of the Italian Renaissance; painting, sculpture and architecture in Ancient Greece and Rome; Byzantine art, material culture, metaphor and thought; perception and cognition, and the biological basis of art. His recent work has been instrumental in the establishment of Neuroarthistory as a distinct set of methodologies.

He is the son of the distinguished classicist, Richard Broxton Onians.

Early life and education

Onians is graduate of the University of Cambridge, and of the Courtauld Institute of Art and Warburg Institutes of the University of London, at the latter of which he was a PhD student in History of Art, of Ernst Gombrich. He had also received postgraduate diploma in the History of European Art from London University.

Career

He was Founder Editor of the journal Art History in 1978. He was professor of Visual Arts and Director of the World Art Research Programme at the University of East Anglia from 1971 until his retirement in 2007 where he was instrumental in the development of the Art History department, and the creation of the School of World Art Studies and Museology.