Thesis: Carità, Pietà, Vergogna: Picturing Poverty in Emilian Art, 1590-1660
Funded by The Courtauld Scholarship
Supervised by Prof. Guido Rebecchini
Advised by Prof. Lucia Simonato (Universität Wien)
My research explores the position of the poor in early modern Europe by focussing on the religious and social reforms that took place in the northern Italian region of Emilia from the very end of the cinquecento to the mid-seicento. Marked by a transformation in devotional practices and by an effervescence of visual experimentation, artists of the region created a novel perception of poverty in response to new models for managing its growing presence among the population.
By re-assessing depictions of the poor in a wide range of visual sources, including prominent pictorial commissions, informal drawings, and prints, my research shows that poverty was a pervasive and powerful presence at all levels of visual culture. I also investigate the extant collections of artworks and everyday objects formed by Catholic charities dedicated to alleviating the hardship of the poor.
Education
- PhD Student
The Courtauld Institute of Art (2024 – present)
- MA, History of Art (Distinction)
The Courtauld Institute of Art (2022 – 2023) — Dissertation: ‘Guercino’s Non-Preparatory Drawings: A questione sociale‘
- Laurea Triennale, Conservazione e gestione dei beni e delle attività culturali (110/110 e lode)
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (2019 – 2021)
Professional Experience
- Prints and Drawings Room Assistant, The Courtauld Gallery, London (2024 – present)
- Member of the Translation Team for Piazza dei Cavalieri. Una storia europea, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (2024-present)
- Junior Research Specialist (Old Masters), Colnaghi, London (2023-2024)
- Ayesha Bulchandani Graduate Curatorial Intern, The Frick Collection, New York (2023)
- Supply Teacher, Bard High School Early College, New York (2022)
- Intern, Center for Italian Modern Art, New York (2021-2022)
Other Academic Activities
- Member of the Graphic Arts Group
Research Interests
- Seventeenth-century Bolognese paintings
- Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italian drawings
- Social art history
- The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
- Philological approaches to the history of art