Approximations of matrix-valued functions of the form WT f(A)W , where A ∈ Rm×m is symmetric, W ∈ Rm×k , with m large and k m, has orthonormal columns, and f is a function, can be computed by applying a few steps of the symmetric block Lanczos method to A with initial block-vector W ∈ Rm×k . Golub and Meurant have shown that the approximants obtained in this manner may be considered block Gauss...