Elfriede Knauer

Elfriede Knauer (née Overhoff; 3 July 1926 – 7 June 2010 ) was a German Classicist and Ancient historian specialising in Greek vase painting, the survival of classical themes in Renaissance art, the history of cartography, classical influences on Central and East Asian art, and the Silk Road.

Career Knauer gained her PhD in 1951 on the subject of pre-Christian apsidal buildings in Greece and Italy from the Goethe University Frankfurt. It was supervised by Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg. The Knauers both joined the University of Pennsylvania in early 1975, though rules at the time prevented husbands and wives from lecturing together – Elfriede was thus able to lecture only twice for the department of the history of art, in 1979 and 1981. This obstacle, however, has been cited as an important factor in allowing Elfriede nearly unlimited time for research and writing and contributed significantly to her substantial publication record.

Personal life Elfriede's grandfather Edmund Kloeppel was a board member of the Bayer company. She has a twin sister, Sybille (a noted Etruscologist). She married her husband Georg Nicolaus Knauer in 1951.

Selected publications Knauer, E. R. 1965. Die Berliner Andokides-Vase. Stuttgart, Reclam Verl. Knauer, E. R. 1976. "Fragments of a cup by the Triptolemos Painter" Greek, Roman and Byzantine studies 17 p. 209-216. Knauer, E. R. 1998. The camel's load in life and death – iconography and ideology of Chinese pottery figurines from Han to Tang and their relevance to trade along the Silk Routes. Zurich, Akanthus.