Medievalist; Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,1956-1973. Swarzenski grew up in Frankfurt, Germany, where his father, Georg Swarzenski was the director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut (museum) and the Liebieghaus sculpture museum. His mother was Ella Perec-Wilcynska, [name sometimes appearing as Pertz-Wilcynska]. As a young man he met the German Expressionist artist Max Beckmann who taught at the Städelsches school. He studied art history at Freiburg under Walter F.