Fabian Jonietz
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institute (Italy)
"Meliora latent": art, concealment, and clandestinity before Modernity
2021-2022: Fall
Fabian Jonietz is the leader of a research project on the pre-modern commemoration of animals at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich. He is also an associated scholar at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institute), where he previously held the position of a Wissenschaftlicher Assistant (2011‒2020). After receiving his Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Munich (2012), his research has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships (most recently ‒ 2020 ‒ at the Collegium Carolinum and at the Forschungszentrum Gotha), and he was invited for visiting professorships by the universities of Basel, Konstanz, Mainz, and Munich.
Fabian Jonietz’s research interests focus on aspects of early modern artistic theory and historiography, as well as the impact of written descriptions of artworks on the visual perception and interpretation of images (the subject of his 2017 monograph "Das Buch zum Bild"). His co-edited volumes include a book on the concept of Aemulatio (2011), The Paradigm of Vasari (2016), and Ghiberti teorico (2019). He is currently preparing an edited volume on indecent imagery, and he organizes a conference on the relation of artistic and medical practices and theories in European and extra-European countries.
During his stay at the Academy, he will be working on a book project dedicated to secret aspects of artistic production, clandestine collections, and the concept of scarcity between c. 1400 and 1800.