[1] A native of Madison, Hibbard was born to Margaret and Benjamin, Sr., an agricultural economics professor at the University of Wisconsin.
[2] Hibbard then continued on to Harvard University, where he earned a PhD in art history in 1958.
During the 1976–1977 academic year, he was named Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford.
Hibbard was a scholar of such Italian artists and architects such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Caravaggio, Carlo Maderno, and Michelangelo, and has published extensively on related topics.
Hibbard married Shirley Irene Griffith, with whom he had three daughters: Claire, Susan, and Carla.