Faculty

Profile

Dr. Lorraine Karafel is an art historian and a writer.  She holds a PhD in art history from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University's School of the Arts. Dr. Karafel's research focuses on art and design in the 15^th to 18^th centuries, especially the history of tapestry, and considers issues of design process, workshop practices, and the relationships between designer, maker, and patron. Her work has been recognized with several grants and awards, including a Sylvan C. Coleman and Pamela Coleman Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; she was also been a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. Dr. Karafel’s publications include articles and reviews in Renaissance Quarterly, Journal of Design History, caa.reviews, Art Sacré, Filo Forme, ARTnews, and The Magazine Antiques. She has contributed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's award-winning 2002 exhibition catalogue, Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence; to the Met's 2014 exhibition catalogue, Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry; and to the Dresden Gemäldegalerie’s 2020 exhibition catalogue, Raphael: The Power of Renaissance Images. The Dresden Tapestries and their Impact.  Her book, Raphael's Tapestries: The Grotesques of Leo X, was published in 2016 by Yale University Press.  The volume Tapestries from the Burrell Collection (London: IB Tauris/Philip Wilson, 2017), co-authored with Elizabeth Cleland, was selected by the London Evening Standard as an outstanding art book for 2017.  In addition, Dr. Karafel has lectured for leading international institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Prado Museum in Madrid; and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  Her new book project looks at the design, production, reproduction and display of European tapestries in the 15^th to 18th centuries.