Byzantinist and baroque scholar, architectural historian; Director of Institute of Fine Art, New York University.

Between 1919-1923 he studied initially at the university in Jura and then successively at the universities in Munich, Berlin, and Marburg.

In 1924 he married Trude Krautheimer (1902-1987) who subsequently also studied art history and became a noted scholar and collector herself.

Krautheimer initially found a position at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

While still at Vassar, he taught (with lecturer status) at New York University (1938-1949).

He is buried in the non-catholic cemetery in Rome with his wife.