Short Biography

1923 On 3 November, Peter Meller was born in Budapest. His uncle was Simon Meller, the well-known art historian, collector and art dealer.

1941 Graduated at the Secondary School of the Piarist Fathers in Budapest.

After 1941 Studied Classical Literature and Art History at the Péter Pázmány University, under such famous professors as Károly Kerényi, József Huszti and Gyula Moravcsik.

1946 Wrote his dissertation on the Renaissance fountain of Matthias Corvinus in Visegrád; his tutor was Tibor Gerevich. He married Edina Stromer.

1947 Studied for four months at Ödön Jakab’s private painting conservator workshop. He was provided a research fellowship at the Zürich University.

1947-1948 Spent the academic year as a fellow at the Hungarian Academy in Rome.

1948 Started to work as voluntary assistant in the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. Within a short time, he became curator in the collection.

1949 Became curator of the Collection of Modern Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (until 1957). His daughter, Judit was born.

1951-1953 Taught art history at the Hungarian Academy of Arts and Crafts, Budapest.

1953 His first wife died.

1953-1954 Taught art history at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest.

1957 In January, he immigrated to Vienna with his daughter and his second wife, Mária Kálmán. Was employed for indexing photos at the Bundesdenkmalamt Österreich. Became a Rockefeller Research fellow at the University of Vienna.

1959 Presented a lecture on Leonardo at Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich.

1959-1960 Became a research fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence where he was an appointed assistant of Ulrich Middeldorf.

1960 Was a research fellow invited by Ernst Gombrich at the Warburg Institute, London.

1959-1966 Worked as research collaborator to George Kaftal in Florence; participated in the preparation of the second volume of the Iconography of Saints.

1965 Employed at the Casa Buonarroti in Florence as a research collaborator to the director, Charles de Tolnay. He contributed to the first volume of the Corpus of Michelangelo’s drawings.

1967-1968 Was lecturer at the Freie Universität, Berlin.

1968 Visiting professor of Italian Renaissance art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The following year he was offered there a permanent position of professor.

1985 Guest scholar at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

1995 Retired from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

1995-2008 Lectured in European and American universities, including the Eötvös Loránd University and the Central European University in Budapest.

2008 Died at age of 85 in Solvang (California).