Federico Abate
e-mail: f.abate@student.unisi.it
Project title: The “Paragone” workshop and twentieth-century art. Relationships with artists and critical militancy of members of the editorial staff during the two Longinian decades (1950-1970)
Abstract: Research will focus on the interest in twentieth-century art of art historians who were students and collaborators of Roberto Longhi on the editorial staff of “Paragone.” It will look at the evolution of their critical thinking on the subject from the early years of the journal, founded in 1950, to their intellectual maturity in order to highlight convergences and differences with respect to the master’s vision. Targeted archival studies will reconstruct the network of personal and professional relationships between the members of that community (among others Giuliano Briganti, Giovanni Previtali, Francesco Arcangeli, Federico Zeri, Ferdinando Bologna, Raffaello Causa, Carlo Volpe, Roberto Tassi, Giovanni Testori, Piero Bigongiari) and the artists with whom they came into contact. Due importance will be given to collecting direct testimony from acquaintances and interlocutors of the studied individuals. Research will interpret orientations of Longhi and his students on contemporary art with respect to the post-World War II critical scenario and in relation to their art-history studies.
Supervisor: Davide Lacagnina (The University of Siena)
Co-Supervisor: Marco Matteo Mascolo (The University of Siena)
Emma Canali
scholarship under DM351/2022 (NRRP research)
e-mail: emma.canali@student.unisi.it
Project title: The creative laboratory of videoart festivals. The French case of Vidéoformes and Les Instants Vidéo
Abstract: The project aims to define the function of the festival format within the historiography of videoart, while providing an in-depth historical slice of the French scenario, the particularities of which must be defined within the framework of the emerging European festival scene dedicated to electronic imagery. Research will focus on the historical-critical reconstruction of the histories of Vidéoformes in Clermont-Ferrand and Les Instants Vidéo in Marseille – the two longest-running and most relevant events in France to this day, both founded in the 1980s – by completing a novel and systematic analysis of the archives of the two festival associations. By analysing and integrating the perspective of the festivals, research also aims to deepen the still partial and piecemeal survey of the closely communicating circuits of videoart production, distribution, dissemination, and exhibition in France over the last four decades.
Supervisor: Luca Quattrocchi (The University of Siena)
Co-Supervisor: Larisa Dryansky (Sorbonne University, Paris)
Mattia Ciani
scholarship under DM351/2022 (NRRP research)
e-mail: m.ciani8@student.unisi.it
Project title: Francis Harwood and the workshop “alla Sapienza”. Recovery of the classical and celebration of enlightened virtues in the Florence of the ‘English milords’
Abstract: The project aims to reconstruct the figure of Francis Harwood (1726/27-1783) and the 30-year activity of his Florentine workshop, which received commissions from the wealthiest Grand Tourists. It explores relationships with sculptors, both of the previous “late Baroque” generation and contemporaries first trained in Rome and then called by the Grand Duke. The study will analyze the different areas in which the artist specialized successfully, becoming a reference for markets across the Channel: the restoration and copying of antiquities, in the wake of the lessons learned in the Roman workshops during his 1752-1753 sojourn; portraiture; and the completion of marble decorations for Grand Ducal residences and European palaces updated in the “Adam style.” By examining the production of Britons residing in Rome and passing through Florence, focusing on Joseph Wilton in particular, research aims to place the work of Harwood and his pupils in the international contexts straddling the last offshoots of the “baroque” and the emerging “neoclassical” style in order to possibly trace in the Via della Sapienza workshop the dynamics and operational processes later codified in better known nineteenth-century realities.
Supervisor: Andrea Bacchi (The University of Bologna)
Co-Supervisor: Alessandro Angelini (The University of Siena)
Vera Cutolo
scholarship under DM351/2022 (NRRP research)
e-mail: v.cutolo1@student.unisi.it
Project title: Bologna cruciale? A critical recovery of Felsine Gothic sculpture from Nicola Pisano to Dalle Masegne.
Abstract:
The project aims to investigate sculpture in Bologna in a period spanning from the last quarter of the thirteenth century to the 1480s. This context is strongly marked both by works of foreign masters and by a dense array of works in the rich local tradition of Bologna and mostly comprising secular funerary typologies closely linked to the milieu of the Bolognese Studium: the famous ‘tombs of the Doctors’. Research will focus on these ‘native’ monuments, hitherto much neglected, despite the pioneering studies of Renzo Grandi. The numerous sculptures in stone and wood materials still preserved within Bologna’s city walls will also be analyzed in order to reconstruct – where lost – their original context from the vast heritage of documents and local sources. The project will attempt to highlight the individual personalities of artists and to understand relationships between local and foreign craftsmen, also with an eye to artists active in nearby Emilian cities. Finally, the critical recovery of Felsine Gothic sculpture also calls for careful research and analysis of works from the Bolognese workshops strewn in museums and collections around the world.
Supervisor: Laura Cavazzini (The University of Trento)
Co-Supervisor: Roberto Bartalini (The University of Siena)
Danilo Lupi
e-mail: d.lupi@student.unisi.it
Project title: Bernardino Cirillo and the arts at the time of the Counter-Reformation from L’Aquila, to Loreto and Rome
Abstract: This research project aims to analyze the relationship with the arts of the illustrious Aquilan cleric Bernardino Cirillo (1500-1575) using the vast epistolary material collected in ten volumes preserved in various Italian public libraries in Rome, L’Aquila, Florence and Milan. A learned man of many interests, in the course of his career he held positions of great importance between Loreto and Rome. His activity in these places led to the start of important decorative works by leading artists of the time and in whose commissioning Cirillo must have played an essential role. Moreover, he must have been particularly fond of L’Aquila, as evidenced by his letters and works of a historical nature, in which the speaks on several occasions of L’Aquila art news. The proposed study will therefore highlight these artistic scenarios, starting from the Cirillian epistolary, along with thorough archival research and careful analysis of the printed works published by the religious man during his lifetime.
Supervisor: Alessandro Angelini (The University of Siena)
Co-Supervisor: Alessandra Giannotti (The University for Foreigners in Siena)
