David Rosand was a graduate of Columbia College and received his PhD from Columbia. He joined the faculty in 1964, has served twice as chairman of the Department of Art History and Archeology, as director of Art Humanities, and as chairman of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities; he also chaired the Department's Wallach Art Gallery Committee.

His areas of special interest included the history of painting, especially the Renaissance tradition, painting and poetry, the graphic arts, modern art and criticism. His books included Titian and the Venetian Woodcut (1976), Titian (1978), The Meaning of the Mark: Leonardo and Titian (1988), Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (1982, rev. ed. 1997), and Robert Motherwell on Paper (1997), which accompanied an exhibition in the Wallach Art Gallery. His most recent books were Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State (2001) and Drawing Acts: Studies in Graphic Expression and Representation (2002).

Professor Rosand has received the Great Teacher Award of the Society of Columbia Graduates.