David Franklin (curator)


David Franklin is an art historian with expertise in Italian Renaissance art, a curator, and a former art museum director.

Thomson Collection

David Franklin is employed by the Thomson Collection in Toronto, Ontario. On April 8, 2015, he gave his first public lecture under this affiliation at the National Gallery of Canada's Wednesday Morning Lecture Series, focusing his remarks on Piero de Cosimo's painting. Franklin helped plan the Canadian Photography Institute, which has promised gifts from the Archive of Modern Conflict and major funding from Bank of Nova Scotia. He is an editor of The Canadians, a selection of photographs from The Globe and Mail archives.
Mr Franklin was also the managing editor of, by I. Jeffrey.

Cleveland Museum of Art

Franklin was named director of the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2010. While Franklin, a was Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, a donation of $1,000,000 was made by Leigh Carter in 2013 to the museum's endowment to fund a permanent fellowship to help the museum's director conduct research on special art historical projects.
Dr. Franklin presented his vision for the museum at the City Club on February 25, 2011.
And on May 23, 2011, Franklin participated in a discussion to celebrate International Museums Day, at the .
He gave a TED Talk May 26, 2011.
On October 30, 2012, he presided over the public opening of the atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
After a three-year tenure, Franklin abruptly resigned on October 21, 2013, citing personal reasons and a need "to do more research and writing". Soon thereafter, the Cleveland Scene revealed that Franklin had been in a romantic relationship with an employee of the museum. The board of directors at the museum had been made aware of the affair when the employee was found to have apparently committed suicide in her Cleveland Heights apartment, shortly after she and Franklin were supposed to have travelled to Spain together, and one week before they were supposed to travel to Italy. According to police reports, David Franklin called the 911 himself and was the only person present at the scene. When police came to investigate the suspicious death, Franklin lied to the officers, pretending having received a text message from the woman, which, according to the Police, never happened. He claimed to have run to the apartment after receiving this text message and to have discovered the body by entering the apartment through an open door. In the course of the investigation, it became apparent that the employee's digital camera and cell phone were missing. These items were eventually recovered. Police have also discovered that a major transfer of data had been done from the woman's phone shortly after she was found dead. As the family could not believe many details of the reported story, a detective was assigned to further investigate the death and Franklin's story. When this revelation came to the attention of the board, Franklin was forced to resign.

Education and scholarship

1991–94, the Slade and Shuffrey Fellow in Italian Renaissance Art, Lincoln College, University of Oxford. 1994–98, Post-doctoral research, University of Oxford
Franklin holds a B.A. from Queen's University, a Master's and PhD from London's Courtauld Institute of Art with specialization in Italian Renaissance art.
He won two prizes from Yale University Press for his first book, and remains active as a scholar.

Publications and Books

Gergely Papp 1938-1963, Ecsegfalva, Hungary, Bone Idle Books, 2018
Polidoro da Caravaggio, London and New Haven, Yale University Press, 2018.
Contributing author to Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence, Gretchen A. Hirschauer and Dennis Geronimus, eds., Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2015.
Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by David Franklin and C. Griffith Mann, Scala Publishing, 2012.
Treasures of the National Gallery of Canada, edited by David Franklin, Yale University Press. 2003.
Painting in Renaissance Florence from 1500 to 1550, London and New Haven, Yale University Press, 2001.
Rosso in Italy: The Italian Career of Rosso Fiorentino, London and New Haven, Yale University Press, 1994.

"Rosso Fiorentino, Marcillat and Vasari in Arezzo: the Reinvention of the Image of the Immaculate Conception", in La Disputa sull'Immacolata Concezione nella Toscana del Cinquecento, ed. C. Hollberg, Florence 2022, pp. 109-123.
"A rediscovered 'Pietà' by Andrea del Sarto", The Burlington Magazine, 166, 2024, pp. 236-243.

Exibibition Catalogues

Forty-Part Motet by Janet Cardiff.
Caravaggio and his Roman circle.
From Raphael to the Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome.  
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Florence.  
The Art of Parmigianino.
''Italian Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada 2003.''

Awards

Franklin was inducted a fellow at for his significant professional achievement and efforts that substantially enriched the college and their communities.
The Stella della solidarietà italiana by the Republic of Italy in 2009, in recognition of David Franklin's knowledge of Italian art and his contribution to its appreciation in Canada.
1995 Governors' Award for Yale University Press, voted best book by author under the age of forty
1995, Gold medal awarded by the Comune of Piombino for the essay "Rosso Fiorentino e Jacopo V Appiani: L'Arte a Piombino nella prima parte del Cinquecento"
1995 Eric Mitchell Prize for Rosso in Italy: The Italian Career of Rosso Fiorentino.
1988–1990, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Doctoral Fellowship
1985–1988, Commonwealth Scholarship