Trenton, NJ: In his final academic year after more than four decades teaching at Mercer County Community College (MCCC), Fine Arts and Art History Professor Mel Leipzig will present a series of four lectures on the painters – and the people – he loves the most.

Leipzig, a renowned artist known nationally and internationally for his realist paintings, will present the first of his series, “Costume and Textiles in the History of Painting,” at noon, Wed., Dec. 5, in Kerney Hall (Room 229) at MCCC’s Trenton campus, 102 North Broad Street.

This slide lecture will focus on clothing designs for men and women, a topic of particular interest at the Trenton campus due to the growing popularity of MCCC’s new Fashion Design program, available only in Trenton. Leipzig said a robust arts community in Trenton, as well as the new program in Fashion Design, made Trenton a natural location for the lecture series.

“Clothing designs in artistic works provide unique insights into the subjects’ time in history, culture, and values,” Leipzig said. “Clothing, accessories – they all tell a story, about the artist as well as the subject.”

Leipzig’s lecture will feature works by Sassetta, Ghirlandaio, Bronzino, Velazquez, Vermeer, Boucher, Ingres, Manet, Whistler, Eakins, Vuillard, Matisse and Pearlstein in a journey that encompasses the Renaissance, Mannerists, Baroque and Rococo periods.

Other lectures, scheduled for spring 2013, include: “African-American Painters: Horace Pippin and Jacob Lawrence,” Wed., Feb. 6; “The Great Painters of Spain,” Wed., March 6; “Portrait of a College: Paintings by Mel Leipzig,” Wed., April 10. All lectures will be held from noon to 1 p.m., in Kerney Hall at the MCCC Trenton campus.

Leipzig has been a professor of Fine Arts and Art History at Mercer since 1968. He has works in permanent collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Academy Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Museum, as well as the New Jersey State Museum.

For more information, contact the Trenton campus Provost’s Office at (609) 570-3160.