This two-year position was established in 1994. The Mellon Professor is chosen to serve two consecutive academic years and is free to pursue independent research.

2018–2020
Steven Nelson, University of California, Los Angeles

2016–2018
Estelle Lingo, University of Washington, Seattle
Mochi's Edge and Bernini's Baroque, Caravaggio's Religious Art, and The Grand Tour from the Italian Perspective [Center 37]
Unbelievable: Rethinking Caravaggio's Religious Art [Center 38]

2014–2016
Paul B. Jaskot, DePaul University
Building, Trotz Alledem! Mapping Construction in Germany, 1914 – 1924 [Center 35]
Mapping the Construction Industry in Interwar Germany (1914-1945): Digital Methods and Architectural Historical Sources [Center 36]

2012–2014
Lynne Cooke, New York City
Outside In: A Study of the Interface Between Mainstream and Self-Taught Art in the United States in the Twentieth Century [Center 33]
Outside In: A Study of the Interface Between Mainstream and Self-Taught Art in the United States in the Twentieth Century [Center 34]

2010–2012
Carmen C. Bambach, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Quest for Authenticity in Michelangelo's Drawings

2008–2010
Miguel Falomir, Museo Nacional del Prado

2006–2008
Elizabeth Hill Boone, Tulane University

2004–2006
Alexander Nagel, University of Toronto

2002–2004
Caroline Elam, The Burlington Magazine

2000–2002
Nicholas Penny, National Gallery, London

1998–2000
Malcolm Bell III, University of Virginia

1996–1998
David Freedberg, Columbia University

1994–1996
Elizabeth Cropper, Johns Hopkins University