Shelley Perlove

Shelley Perlove, Professor Emerita of the History of Art of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, in service at UM in Ann Arbor since 2010, specializes in Italian and Dutch art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with an emphasis upon religious and material culture, visual typology, and the impact of the global trade of precious woods and exotic fruits imported from America and Asia in early modern Europe. Other interests lie in the political and philosophical interpretations of visual narrative, including secular readings of biblical text. She is the author of two award-winning books published by Penn State University Press: Bernini and the Idealization of Death, and more recently with Larry Silver, Rembrandt’s Faith: Church and Temple in the Dutch Golden Age and is editor of six books. She has written more than forty articles, essays and reviews appearing in such journals as Burlington Magazine, Gazette des Beaux Arts, and Artibus et Historiae, and has curated five exhibitions devoted to early modern prints. Most recently she served as author and consultant to the exhibitions, “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus,” which opened at the Louvre, and for the Rembrandt exhibition intended to open in Moscow, although the catalogue is already published. Dr. Perlove is presently writing a chapter for the upcoming exhibition, "Guercino's Narratives: Storytelling in Baroque Italy," which will open at the Prado in 2027. Her current book project investigates the religious narratives of Rembrandt’s circle within the political and social context of Dutch culture.

Fields of Study

• Dutch art
• Italian Baroque
• Global Trade and Material Culture

Recent Presentations

• “Precious Hardwoods in Colonial America: Grueling Production and Material Splendor,”in the session, “Dutch Americas,” chaired by Stephanie Porras and Aaron Hyman, CAA, New York City. February 16, 2023.
• Distinguished Annual Art History Coleman Mopper Lecture: “Rembrandt and The African Woman: The Visitation of 1640.” Detroit Institute of Arts, April 20, 2022.
• “Rembrandt and the Jews,” Symposium for Moscow/ Amsterdam exhibition, “Rembrandt seen through Jewish Eyes.” Organized by Gary Schwartz and Mirjam Knotter.  January 31, 2022.
• "Treasures of Early Modern Religious Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts." by special invitation of the Michigan Center of Early Christian Studies, webinar, February 25, 2021.
• Keynote: “The Myth of Enoch in Early Modern Visual Art.” Facoltà Teologia, University of Florence, June 12, 2019. 
• “Rembrandt and the Jewish Experience,” for the eponymous exhibition, Telfair Museum, Savannah, Georgia, March 2019.
• "Dutch Art of the Golden Age and the Early Photography of Henry Talbot: A Case of Transhistorical Competition," Workshop Presentation in "The Transhistorical Turn in Netherlandish Art History," Historians of Netherlandish Art conference, Ghent, 24 May 2018.

Recent Publications

• "Rembrandt, the Jews and Judaism," in Knotter, Miriam and Gary Schwartz, eds. in Rembrandt seen Through Jewish Eyes: The Artist's Meaning to Jews from His Time to Ours. Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam Press, 2024, 123-140.
•  "Temple Priests and Pharisees on Calvary: Anti-Judaism and Humanism in Maarten van Heemskerck's Crucifixion (c. 1549)," in Stijn P.M. Bussels, Karl A.E. Enenkel, Michel Weemans, and Eliott Wise, eds. Imago and Contemptatio in the Visual Arts and Literature (1400-1700). Festschrift for Walter S. Melion, Leiden, Brill: 2024, Chapter 8, 162-185.
•  "Navigating Theological Differences: Rembrandt and The Grieving Mother of Christ,” in Barbara Haeger, Elliott Wise, and James Clifton, eds. in Mary, Mother of God. Devotion and Doctrine in the Visual Arts, 1450-1700. Leiden, Brill: 2023, Chapter 8, 300-335.
• 'By this blood most chaste…’: Passion and Politics in Rembrandt’s Lucretia of 1666,” in Walter S. Melion and Art di Furia, eds. Ekphrastic Image-Making in Early Modern Europe and the Americas 1500-1700. Leiden, Brill: 2022, Chapter 15, 650-684.
• "Rembrandt’s Visitation: The African Woman at the Dawn of Christianity and Colonialism," Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 14:1 (Winter 2022) DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2022.14.1.3
• "Jacob van Ruisdael's Jewish Cemetery, c. 1654-1655: Religious Toleration, Dutch Identity, and Divine Time," in Karl A.E. Enenkel/Walter S. Melion, Landscape and the Visual Hermeneutics of Place, 1500-1700, (Leiden/Boston/New York, Koninklijke Brill: 2021, Chapter 8, pp. 233-260.
• Perlove, Shelley. Stephanie S. Dickey, ed. Rembrandt and his Circle: Insights and Discoveries. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018. Historians of Netherlandish Art Review, January 2019.
• Perlove, Charles M. Rosenberg. Rembrandt’s Religious Prints: The Feddersen Collection at the Snite Museum of Art. June 05, 2019. Renaissance Quarterly Review, LXXII, 162-63.

Recent Awards

• President's Award from the Midwest Art History Society (MAHS) for outstanding service and publications, 2024.