| 1 | Name: | Dr. Larissa Bonfante | |
| Institution: | New York University | ||
| Year Elected: | 2009 | ||
| Class: | 4. Humanities | ||
| Subdivision: | 401. Archaeology | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1932 | ||
| Death Date: | August 23, 2019 | ||
Larissa Bonfante was Professor of Classics at New York University (1963-2006). Born in Italy, she came with her family to the United States as a child by way of Spain and Geneva, Switzerland. She held a BA from Barnard College, an M.A. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati, and a PhD in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University, with Otto Brendel as dissertation adviser. Her first published article was "Emperor, God and Man: Julian the Apostate and Ammianus Marcellinus," followed by Etruscan Dress (1975). Further work on ancient dress, originally inspired by the works of Margarete Bieber, included an NEH Summer Seminar on the Symbolism of Roman Costume (1988), and publications on the Roman triumph, and nudity as a costume in classical art. Brendel’s statement, "we take the Greeks as our model, forgetting that they did everything differently from everyone else," helped direct her focus on the non-Greeks of the classical world, for example in The Etruscan Language, written with her father, the Indo-Europeanist Giuliano Bonfante. Bonfante was a member of the German Archaeological Institute, the Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici, founder and President of its US Section, and co-editor of Etruscan News. She was Visiting Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in 1980, received teaching awards at New York University for her work with undergraduates, and the 2007 Gold Medal for Archaeological Achievement from the Archaeological Institute of America. She delivered the Thomas Spencer Jerome Lecture Series in 2006-07 and the AIA Norton Lecturesship in 2007-08. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2009. Larissa Bonfante died August 23, 2019 in New York, New York at the age of 88. | |||