Why Does Michelangelo Matter?: A Historian’s Questions About the Visual Arts

Placeholder author icon
By Theodore K. Rabb *61

Published Dec. 1, 2017

Theodore Rabb *61 has been asking what historians should learn from art since the ’70s, and he has argued that visual evidence should be given the same priority as texts. Why Does Michelangelo Matter? (SPOSS) gives specific examples of how art should inform history, from 1920s German portraits to El Greco and the Spanish Renaissance.

Paw in print

Image
PAW's July/August 2025 issue cover, featuring a photo of people dressed in orange and black, marching in the P-rade, and the headline: Reunions, Back in Orange & Black.
The Latest Issue

July 2025

On the cover: Wilton Virgo ’00 and his classmates celebrate during the P-rade.