Fred Licht (1928–2019): An Appreciation

Abstract

Leaving a dinner party in Florence one fine spring evening in 1987, Fred Licht remarked to his fellow guests, “I am just a cicerone.” Not untrue, his statement was of course ironic, since Fred pondered works of art deeply and his friends all knew it. Yes, he was a cicerone or guide, but he was far more than that. For years Fred led students here and there throughout Italy in order to behold works of art that he loved. What he had to say was informed by a deep knowledge which he happily shared and by an obsessive attempt to solve the mysteries of great, well-known masterpieces and of works that were little known. In the summer of 1960 he showed slides of works of art aboard a little ship, the Ascanio, filled with students traveling between New York