Maddalena Spagnolo

Università degli Studi di Siena

Mocking works of art: wit and blame in art criticism from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century

2006-2007

Maddalena Spagnolo graduated in Art History (La fortuna critica di Andrea del Sarto, 1995) and got the Diploma di Specializzazione in Art History at the Università di Pisa (La matita rossa: storia e analisi di un medium grafico e delle sue implicazioni tecniche e stilistiche, 1998). She was awarded a fellowship for one year of Perfezionamento at the Warburg Institute, London (1999). She received the PhD in Art History from the Università di Pisa (Geografia e storia della fortuna di Correggio, 2003). She is currently assegnista di ricerca and Professore a contratto of Art History criticism at the Università di Siena. In the 2004 she was awarded a fellowship from the Accademia dei Lincei- British Academy and in the 2005 she has been a Frances A. Yates Short-Term Research Fellow at the Warburg Institute. Her research deals with the history of reception of works of art, particularly in the XVIth and XVIIth century. In this respect, she has investigated both published and unpublished sources of art history and has studied the relationship between art its audience. She has published in "Ricerche di storia dell'arte", "Arte Lombarda", "APOLLO". She is coauthor of the book The Basilica of Saint Peter's in the Vatican (Modena, 2000) and has coedited Percorsi vasariani fra le arti e le lettere (Siena, 2004). She is author of Correggio. Geografia e storia della fortuna (1528-1657) (Milano, 2005) and Bernini. Il Baldacchino (Modena 2006). She is currently writing a book on art history sources of the XVIth century (Le fonti per la storia dell'arte. Il Cinquecento, Roma, Carocci). At the Italian Academy she will work on the rise of wit and irony in early modern art criticism and will investigate ephemeral texts - sonnets, pamphlets, brochures - written in immediate response to works of art displayed in public spaces.