Boardman Professor of Fine Arts John K.G. Shearman, a scholar of Renaissance art, has been named a University professor.

Shearman, who teaches the popular Literature and Arts B core class on Michelangelo, will assume the Adams University Professorship on July 1 when current chair holder Bernard Bailyn retires.

Created by then-President James Bryant Conant in 1935, University professorships represent Harvard's highest faculty distinction, allowing scholars to work and offer instruction in any of Harvard's 10 faculties. There are currently 12 University professors.

Shearman arrived at Harvard, after vacating his position as chair of Princeton's Department of Art and Archaeology in 1988.

Two years ago, Shearman created Michelangelo, which drew more than 1,000 students on its first day. He is also renowned for his work an Raphael.

"I feel privileged to be able to make this appointment," President Neil Rudenstine said in a statement last week. "Professor Shearman is recognized throughout the world for his formidable contribution to scholarship and criticism in the field of Italian Renaissance art history."

"And he has never defined that field in anything less than the most comprehensive way--including architectural history, music, intellectual history and the complex relationship between `conservation' or `condition' of works of art and broader historical studies," the president added.

Rudenstine also lauded Shearman's teachingabilities, calling the art scholar's skills inboth the lecture hall and the seminar room"masterful."

"From every point of view, he fulfillsHarvard's conception of a University professor,"Rudenstine said.

Shearman earned his undergraduate degree in1955 and his Ph. D. in 1957, both from theUniversity of London's Courtald Institute. Hetaught there until his appointment at Princeton in1979.

Shearman has written major books on Raphael,Leonardo, Andrea del Sarto, Nicholas Poussin andFra Bartolommeo, as well as having cataloguedQueen Elizabeth II's early Italian paintingcollection.

He could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In an interview with The Harvard Gazette in1989, Shearman characterized his scholarship styleas comprehensive and deliberately unassuming.

"I've been fighting all my life against thepoint of view that there is something central andnormative about Renaissance art, and thereforeevery student ought to know it," he said.

"I disagree with that profoundly," Shearmansaid. "It's a disappointing misinterpretation ofRenaissance art because then the art becomesmerely normative; one loses the sense ofexcitement of something new and creative,rebellious and imaginative, by thinking that is ita return to a center.