Medieval- and Modernist art historian; Columbia University professor; one of the most important art historians of the twentieth century. Schapiro's father was a Hebrew school teacher who had emigrated from Lithuania in 1906. The younger Schapiro emigrated at age 3 when his father was able to send for the family. Schapiro studied at Public School 84 and Boys High School in Brooklyn (the family lived in the Brownsville section) where his father was a twine jobber.