Distinguished professor of art history, Indiana University, Bloomington, specialist in the Art of Renaissance Italy. Cole was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated with a BA from Western Reserve University in 1962, earning his master’s degree in art history at Oberlin in two years later. Following this, Cole completed his doctorate in art history at Bryn Mawr in 1969. His dissertation examined the work of fourteenth century Florentine painter Agnolo Gaddi (c.1350–1396).