Martha Peacock

Martha Peacock strives to build her scholarship on faith in an eternal plan. A professor of art history at Brigham Young University, she encourages her students to thoughtfully question and critically evaluate to better understand both their studies and eternal truths. In her own research, she is guided by the connections she finds between historical depictions and deep gospel principles.  

Peacock received her bachelor’s degree in art history from BYU, then went on to earn her PhD from Ohio State University. She later returned to BYU as a professor where she focuses her research on women and domesticity in seventeenth-century Dutch art. Peacock has published and presented on several artists, including Geertruydt Roghman, Anna Maria van Schurman, Bosch, and Rembrandt, and has contributed to and edited multiple exhibition catalogs. Her scholarly works, which include several articles and her book Heroines, Harpies, and Housewives: Imaging Women of Consequence in the Dutch Golden Age contribute valuable insights on the roles and perceptions of women in Dutch art.  

More important to her than her education and research, however, is the access Peacock has to revelation and knowledge about God’s plan. In her personal and professional discovery of temporal and eternal truth, she has felt His love and seen His hand guiding her and her family unceasingly.