Art Historian Matthew Milliner Receives 2021 Commonwealth Fellowship

Art historian Matthew J. Milliner is the recipient of the Institute’s Commonwealth Fellowship for the spring 2021 and fall 2021 semesters. The Commonwealth Fellowship was established to acknowledge scholars whose work digs deeply and insightfully into the cultural history that underlies the widely received notion of the common good.

The fellowship will allow Milliner to complete his forthcoming book, Mother of the Lamb: Origin and Insight of a Global Icon (Fortress Press). According to Milliner:

The book traces the history of an icon of the Virgin and Child that now saturates the globe, with major shrines everywhere, from Manila to Manhattan and Cairo to Chicago. Known in the Orthodox world as the Virgin of the Passion and in the Catholic sphere as Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the image was first painted as an Orthodox response to the violence of the Crusades.

As part of his fellowship year while completing the book, Milliner will avail himself of workshopping opportunities with other Institute scholars and also (conditions permitting) present a public lecture based on this research project.

“We’re thrilled and honored to be able to provide a scholar of Matthew’s attainments with this opportunity,” said Institute Director Dr. Ryan Olson. “His new project promises to deepen our understanding of how devotion and cultural change feed on each other and transmute over time, leading—among other things—to some of humanity’s most profound and beautiful artistic expressions.”

Milliner’s scholarly specialization is Byzantine and medieval art, with a focus on how such images inform contemporary visual culture. He is a five-time appointee to the Curatorial Advisory Board of the US Senate and a winner of Redeemer University’s Emerging Public Intellectual Award. He has written for publications including the New York Times and First Things and recently delivered the Wade Center’s Hansen lecture series on Native American Art.

An associate Professor of Art History at Wheaton College since 2011, Milliner holds an MA and PhD in art history from Princeton University and an M.Div from Princeton Theological Seminary.