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Leo S. Steinberg (born Schneur Zalman Ariyeh Lev Steinberg; July 9, 1920 – March 13, 2011) was a Soviet-born

Ken Johnson described him as "one of the most brilliant, influential and controversial art historians of the last half of the 20th century". Joseph Rykwert called him "one of the most brilliant and original art historians of his generation".

Early life and education
Steinberg was born Schneur Zalman Ariyeh Lev Steinberg in Moscow, Russian SFSR, on July 9, 1920.

He had at least two sisters.

His mother, Anyuta Esselson Steinberg, came from a wealthy background.

His father, Isaac Nachman Steinberg, was a lawyer and politician during Revolutionary Russia, serving as People's Commissariat of Justice under Vladimir Lenin.

His uncle, Aaron Steinberg, was a scholar who would later direct the World Jewish Congress's cultural department.

After leaving Russia, the family fled to Berlin. While there, he learned German.

Following Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, the Steinbergs fled to Britain. While there, he learned English.

At sixteen years old, Steinberg entered the Slade School of Fine Art. In 1940, he received his diploma for work in sculpture and drawing.

Following the Second World War, the family left Britain and moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Writing career
After moving to the United States, Steinberg worked in freelance writing, editing and translating, taught life drawing and studied philosophy.

In 1947, he translated Jacob Pat's Ashes and Fire.

In 1949, he translated the novel Mary by Sholem Asch.

In his mid-30s, Steinberg began writing on art history.

His essays were published in works such as Partisan Review and Arts Magazine.

In 1951, he gave a lecture series titled "An Introduction to Art and Practical Esthetics" at the 92nd Street Y. It gained wide attention.

In 1970, he presented the two-part lecture series "On Michelangelo and Rubens" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1972, Steinberg published Other Criteria: Confrontations With Twentieth-Century Art, a collection of essays written between 1953 and 1971. It was one of fourteen books nominated in the Arts and Letters category of the 1973 National Book Awards.

In 1975, he published Michelangelo's Last Paintings: The Conversion of St. Paul and The Crucifiction of St. Peter in the Cappella Paolina, Vatican Palace. It was nominated in the Arts and Letters category of the 1976 National Book Awards.

In 1982, Steinberg delivered the A. W. Mellon Lecture at the National Gallery of Art.

In 1983, Steinberg published a study into Renaissance depictions of the Christ Child's genitalia. The work, titled The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, received a mixed response from critics.

In 1983, Steinberg became the first art historian to receive an award for literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1986, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.

In 1995, he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University.

In 2000, he published Encounters with Rauschenberg, based on a lecture about Robert Rauschenberg.

In 2001, he published Leonardo's Incessant Last Supper.

Writing style
In 1974, Roger Shattuck praised Steinberg for his "strong sense of style" but noted that he "tend[s] to overwrite".

In a review of Michelangelo's Last Paintings, John Russell complimented the passion evident in Steinberg's work, writing that: "To the discipline of art history he brings a chivalric intent and, with that, a depth and a density of emotional commitment which are quite exceptional. When we read him we feel ourselves in the company not of one of art history's accountants, but of an ardent and vulnerable nature which is stretching itself to the utmost."

Academic career
In 1960, he received a doctorate from the New York University Institute of Fine Art with a thesis on Francesco Borromini.

In 1960, he became a professor of art history at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.

In 1975, he left Hunter College and began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1991, Steinberg retired from the University of Pennsylvania.

In the early 2000s, Steinberg taught at the University of Texas at Austin.

Art collection
In 2002, he donated his private collection of 3,200 prints to the University of Texas at Austin.

The collection included works by a variety of artists, including: • Francisco Goya

• Jasper Johns

• Henri Matisse

• Michelangelo

• Pablo Picasso

• Rembrandt

Personal life
In 1962, Steinberg married Dorothy Seiberling (1922–2019), an art critic who worked as senior art editor for Life and served as deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine. Her mother was Henrietta Buckler Seiberling and her grandfather was Frank Seiberling, a founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Steinberg and Seiberling later divorced, and she married film producer Sidney J. Stiber.

Steinberg was a heavy smoker, once noting that his only period without writing was when he attempted to quit smoking in the 1960s.

Steinberg died at his Manhattan home on March 13, 2011.

Awards and honours

 * Arts and Letters category of the National Book Awards (1973; nominated for Other Criteria: Confrontations With Twentieth-Century Art)
 * Arts and Letters category of the National Book Awards (1976; nominated for Michelangelo's Last Paintings: The Conversion of St. Paul and The Crucifiction of St. Peter in the Cappella Paolina, Vatican Palace)