Jaroslav Thayer Folda III (b. 25 July 1940 Baltimore, Md.)[1] is a medievalist, in which field he is a Haskins Medal winner; he is a scholar in the history of the art of the Crusades and the N. Ferebee Taylor Professor of the History of Art at the University of North Carolina. His area of interest for teaching and research is the art of the Middle Ages in Europe and the Mediterranean world.
Folda's approach is art in historical context in which the work of art is examined in terms of form and function, meaning and content, along with what we can know about the patron, the artist, the workshop process by which it was produced, and the audience for whom it was intended. Folda's current research studies the issue of golden highlighting (chrysography), with regard to its origins, development, and distinctive characteristics in Byzantine and Crusader icon painting and Italian panel painting, mainly in the 13th century.