Eleonora Pistis

Worcester College - Oxford University

“Le cose lontane, vicine”: early eighteenth-century Europe and non-European architecture (1695–1725)

2014-2015: Spring

I hold higher degrees in both architecture and architectural history from the University IUAV in Venice, where I received a Ph.D. in the history of architecture and urbanism in 2011. I am currently (2011-2014) Scott Opler Research Fellow at Worcester College, University of Oxford, where I am completing a book on the British architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736) and eighteenth-century Oxford.
In the past ten years my research and publications have spanned European architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries with a focus on Italy, France, and Britain. I am particularly interested in the relationship between architecture and antiquarian studies within the European Republic of Letters, architectural drawings, the history of art collecting, the libraries of artists, the spaces of public institutions, and European encounters with non-European art. My various projects have received the support of the Paul Mellon Centre in London, the Francis Haskell Memorial Fund, the Samuel Kress Foundation, and the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome.
The new research project which I will develop at the Academy aims to recreate the European architect’s mental picture of non-European architecture at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The project deals with visual and textual printed sources available at the time, focusing in particular on travel literature.
http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/faculty/staff/profile/pistis.html