About Saper Vedere

Kalamazoo
I am an art historian at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where I also live with my husband, four children, and 3 dogs. From 2007-2010, I worked as the interim director of the Frostic School of Art. Fall 2010, I had a sabbatical to jump start my return to research mode, and in January 2011, I will return to teaching after a 3½-year hiatus. To celebrate this step back into the world of art, teaching, and research I have started this blog. I am using it to muse about the visual world (rather than spreadsheets). I have titled it after a well-known saying of Leonardo da’Vinci, “saper vedere,” or “to see is to know.” It is my purpose to know the world a little bit better by focusing on an image a day, which I will post to this blog. Because of my art historical leaning (some would say twisted perspective)—most of the images will be pulled from the past. Because images never live in isolation—ideas, events, literature, music, and movement could be added. While this a personal exploration, others are invited to join and to comment. Best wishes for a visually stunning, intellectually provocative, personally rewarding, communally productive, and peaceful 2011.

Monday, January 3, 2011






On this date in 1521, the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther, its most successful heretic, four years after Luther "nailed" his 95 theses protesting the Church's sale of indulgences.  He was able to avoid the punishment of many heretics shown in this image from the Chronicle of Ulrich of Reichental, in which another early protestant reformer, John Hus, is burned at the stake in 1415.
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