Left to right: Dimitri Hazzikostas, Clare Romano, Richards Ruben.
Dimitri Hazzikostas, professor and scholar of ancient and Byzantine art, died on May 12, 2023.
Dimitri Hazzikostas teaching at Torcello, 2010
Dimitri Hazzikostas joined the art history department at Pratt as the result of a search for a specialist in ancient art, and became a full-time faculty member in 1983. He received his doctoral degree in art history from Columbia University; his dissertation addressed the iconography of love and death in Greek art. A member of the Hellenic Archaeological Society, he participated in excavations at ancient Corinth, Troezen, and Lechaion.
Dimitri Hazzikostas holding class, 1990
He supervised the Art Survey classes at Pratt for decades, and developed courses in Greek, Roman, and Medieval art for both graduate and undergraduate students, as well as serving long-term on the Faculty Senate.
Diana Gisolfi and Dimitri Hazzikostas co-teaching in the Oratorio di S. Giorgio, Padua, 2006
Hazzikostas joined the Pratt in Venice program in 1988, and taught the on-site Art History class, annually through 2011, his knowledge of Byzantine art enhancing the course. He instituted three important and lasting aspects of the program. He established the first on-site class as a trip to Torcello; he discovered a trattoria in the hills above Bassano where Pratt in Venice participants annually enjoy a feast in a rustic setting. In addition, he insisted that we obtain boat passes for the students in advance of their arrival, a wise practice that we continue!
More than all this, he was a ready font of knowledge for students, a congenial colleague, an ever-generous instructor. He is missed.
Dimitri Hazzikostas lecturing in Venice (Photo: Wennie Huang, 1993)
