A gush of affection for a giant of art history

A gush of affection for a giant of art history

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont — Possibly apocryphal but undoubtedly significant is the story of the college instructor at Columbia University who had the misfortune to have in his class some of the most brilliant minds of the century, among them Lionel Trilling, Jacques Barzun and Meyer Schapiro. Schapiro, so the story goes, was a particular thorn in the instructor’s side. “Time after time,” according to a 1960 story in the Columbia Spectator, “utilizing…