Christopher Lakey, a groundbreaking scholar of medieval art history and lecturer in Fordham’s Department of Art History and Music, died on July 24 of a sudden illness that led to sepsis. He was 52.
Lakey joined Fordham in 2023 after teaching at Reed College and Johns Hopkins University. Nina Rowe, the John L. Marion Chair in Art History, Painting, and Sculpture, knew him from conferences and from collaborating together at the International Center of Medieval Art. She felt fortunate that she was able to bring him to Fordham.
“I already knew he was not only a superb scholar and leading light in the field, but also a great guy to work with and a good collaborator. We were lucky to have the opportunity to hire him and for him to share his skills and passions with our students,” said Rowe.
Lakey’s 2018 book, Sculptural Seeing: Relief, Optics, and the Rise of Perspective in Medieval Italy (Yale University Press), upends traditional narratives of art history that celebrate 15th-century Renaissance artists for their “discovery” of one-point perspective, said Rowe. (Think horizon lines and vanishing points, which allow painters to create the illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface.) Lakey instead discerned that sculptors as early as the 12th century used their studies of optics, geometry, and theories of vision to represent perspective, said Rowe. “It’s a subtle argument that’s profoundly important.”
At Fordham Lakey taught both introductory art history courses and upper-level classes such as Italian Art and Politics in the Age of Dante, showcasing his scholarship and proficiency in six languages, including classical and medieval Latin. He also led the art history senior thesis seminar. One former seminar student, Fiona Eggleston ’26, said she admired his confidence in his students’ capabilities and the way he taught “potentially intimidating topics with no pretension.”
“His support through the difficult process of research and writing a thesis is one of the only reasons I was able to push through. A supportive, humorously phrased comment of his would keep me going another week,” she said. “I will miss him so much, as a professor, advisor, and person.”
Lakey was born on Dec. 1, 1973, in Washington, D.C., to Robert and Claudia Lakey; he was the youngest of two sons. He lived in Virginia until age 5, when the family moved to Houston, Texas. After receiving his bachelor’s in ancient and medieval history and religion at Baylor University and his master’s from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies, he began work toward his PhD at UC Berkeley in 2001. There he met art historian Sarah Hamill; they married in 2006 and together they had two sons, Thomas Virgil Hamill-Lakey, age 11, and Francis Woolf “Lupo” Hamill-Lakey, age 8.
A devoted father, Lakey participated in every aspect of his boys’ lives in their Hudson Valley home of Rhinebeck, New York. Days before he died, the avid Boston Red Sox fan fulfilled his dream of taking his boys to a game at Fenway Park.
“Chris was an amazing dad to his two boys,” said Hamill. “He cared deeply for them, entering their worlds to get to know everything about their passions, whether it was LEGO Star Wars, Stitch, American history, baseball, or soccer. He had a sharp, wry sense of humor and quick wit that encouraged others to jovially question the world around them, to join him in his humor and his uniquely brilliant way of thinking about the world. Our hearts are broken and we miss him.”
Along with his sons and Hamill, his ex-wife and co-parent, Lakey is survived by his mother, Claudia Houdek Lakey; his brother, Patrick Garland Lakey, and sister-in-law, Jane McFadden; his nephew, Everett McFadden Lakey; and his niece, Jane Maren Lakey. He was predeceased by his father, Robert J. Lakey. A memorial service will be held on Aug. 8 in Rhinebeck.
