Supervised by Guido Rebecchini
Funded by The American Friends of the Courtauld Institute of Art, The Courtauld Scholarship, The Beinecke Scholarship, and the Linda Nochlin ’51 Memorial Scholarship (Vassar College)
From ‘Damnation’ to Restitution: The Pazzi Beyond the Conspiracy
Although the infamous Pazzi Conspiracy of April 1478 is ubiquitous in histories of Renaissance Florence, little scholarly attention has been paid to the family for which it is named. Building on the vast literature of patronage in late medieval and early modern Italy, this dissertation considers the Pazzi from the perspective of the visual arts and material culture. It first presents case studies of family commissions before 1478 to demonstrate the nature of their identity in the context of Florentine art and politics. It then examines the Florentine attacks against the family after the Conspiracy: the traditional confiscation of property and unprecedented damnatio memoriae, which banned their name and coat of arms from both public and private use. Challenging the assumption that the erasure was complete and successful, it then explores the resilience of the family’s identity and imagery, highlighting instances of reclamation and rehabilitation upon their return to Florence in 1494. Such a study of material culture at the end of the fifteenth century speaks to the potency of objects and images and reveals a particular sensitivity to these works, enlivening the already rich understanding of this period and the flourishing culture it boasted.
I am also a Junior Research Fellow and the Social Media Manager at the Medici Archive Project in Florence, Italy and the Editor-in-Chief of Immediations, the Courtauld’s postgraduate peer-reviewed journal.
Education
PhD, History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art (2023-present)
MA, History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art (2022-2023)
Continuity and Innovation: Reframing the Italian Renaissance from Masaccio to Michelangelo; Revolutions, Translations, Imitations: Arts in Rome, 1520-1550
Dissertation: “A Collection of Illuminated Manuscripts for Pope Leo X Between Florence and Rome”
Honours and Awards: Director’s Prize for Outstanding Dissertation
BA, Art History and Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Vassar College (2018-2022)
Dissertation: “Power, Patronage, and Politics: The Pazzi”
Honours and Awards: General Honors, Departmental Honors; Frances Daly Fergusson Prize for Outstanding Accomplishments in Art History; Phi Beta Kappa
Publications
“Vassar’s Cornaro Window: A Brief History and Iconographic Reading.” Vassar Campus History. Vassar College, May 2022.
“The Hunt of Iul(ian)us: Poliziano’s Stanze and Virgil’s Aeneid.” Vassar Critical Journal 4, no. 2 (2021): 80–88.
“Chivalry and Performance in Medicean Jousts of the Fifteenth Century.” Dies Legibiles 1 (May 2021): 96–108.
“The Medici and the Pazzi: Camaraderie and Animosity.” Medieval World: Culture and Conflict 18 (2025), 26-33.
With Alice Dodds. “On Edge: An Editorial.” Immediations 21 (January 2025).
“Tu vuo’ fa’ l’italiano: One Hundred Years of Italian at Vassar.” Podcast. Vassar College Italian Department, May 2022.
“Il Treno di Dante: A Pilgrimage to Ravenna.” Published in online catalogue for Celebrating Dante at Vassar, Autumn 2021.
Presentations and Lectures
Conference Presentations
“The Invention of the Pazzi Conspiracy”
“The Invention of the Medici of the Quattrocento,” Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA. 19-21 February 2026.
“Religious Patronage in Jacopo de’ Pazzi’s Will: Three (Unrealised) Commissions”
The Pazzi Beyond the Conspiracy. The Medici Archive Project, Florence, Italy. 6 June 2025.
“The Threat of Imagery: Confiscation and Damnatio Memoriae after the Pazzi Conspiracy”
Panel Three, Courtauld Second Year PhD Symposium. The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England. 1 May 2025.
“Devotionem erga te meam perpetuo testetur”: Triangulating Archbishop Cosimo de’ Pazzi’s Patronage in Rome
“Florentines in Rome,” Early Modern Rome V. Rome, Italy. 14-16 November 2024.
“A Slice of the Sistine Chapel at Vassar: Leo X’s Liturgical Manuscripts”
“Using the Vassar Collection: Former Vassar Students in their Professions,: Research Group for Manuscript Evidence’s Spring Symposium: Between Past and Future: Building Bridges Between Special Collections and Teaching for the Liberal Arts. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA. 19-21 April 2024.
“A New Reconstruction of Leo X’s Liturgical Manuscripts”
“New Perspective in Italian Art,” Renaissance Society of America. Chicago, IL, USA. 21-23 March 2024.
“The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Leo X’s Mitre at the Cathedral of Florence.”
“Gift Giving in the Archives,” MAP Forum. Online. 19 December 2023.
“The Hunt of Iul(ian)us: Poliziano’s Stanze and Virgil’s Aeneid.“
“Secularism and Secular Power,” 15th Undergraduate Conference in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. Moravian University, Bethlehem, PA, USA. 4 December 2021
“Citrus Cultivation in Early Medici Gardens.”
“Scent and Fragrance in the Renaissance: Breakout Option C,” 41st Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum: Scent and Fragrance in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Keene State College, NH, USA. 16-17 April 2021.
Conferences Organised
The Pazzi Beyond the Conspiracy
With Maximillian Hernandez (John Hopkins University). The Medici Archive Project, Florence, Italy. 5-6 June 2025.
Invited Lectures
“Cosimo de’ Pazzi’s “Continued Devotion” between Florence and Rome”
MAP Forum. Online. 28 January 2025.
Teaching
Associate Lecturer – BA2/3/GD Histories: Art and the Crusades – Autumn 2025
Teaching Assistant – BA1 Foundations – Autumn 2024
Research Interests
- Visual and material culture in 15th- and early 16th-century Italy
- Patronage
- Self-fashioning and identity making
- Art and politics
- Ephemera, ceremonies, and processions
- Archival research