News

SU Florence Director wins research fellowship

SUF Director Barbara Deimling has been awarded the prestigious Craig Hugh Smyth Research Fellowship at the Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy.

Deimling’s research will have as its focus Mary Magdalene, as represented in a fourteenth-century fresco cycle in a small, rural church near Bolzano, Italy. Says Deimling, “I am thrilled with this opportunity, as I have been longing to devote myself to completing my research. This time will allow me to fully dedicate my energies to work that I have been unable to finish for several years now.”

The Craig Hugh Smyth Research Fellowship is designed for scholars in any field of Italian Renaissance studies whose full-time occupations do not allow them the research time that is normally enjoyed by university academics.  Fellows are selected on the basis of a record of distinction and an application to carry out a project of advanced research in Renaissance art history, literature, history, or musicology.

The research leave begins September 15 and ends December 15, 2008. During Deimling’s absence, Jim Kauffman will act as the Interim Administrative Director, and Jonathan Nelson, Coordinator of the Art History Department, will be the Interim Academic Coordinator.

SUF welcomes fall 2008 students

SUF staff and faculty extend a warm welcome to fall 2008 students. This semester sees the arrival of nearly 300 students as well as eight returning graduate fine arts students, and marks the launch of two new programs which will become signature experiences of SUF: the Discovery Florence program, and the prequel program, A Mediterranean Odyssey.

“I’m particularly pleased to start the new academic year,” says SU Florence Director Barbara Deimling, “with two new programs that show SUF’s constant strive for excellence and outreach to new students.“

Orientation takes place over four days, from Tuesday through Friday, September 2 – 5, and introduces students to the SUF campus, faculty and staff; offers information about educational opportunities and course registration; introduces community connections and engagement opportunities that represent a unique part of the SU Florence experience, such as the internship and volunteer programs; and offers social activities organized to help students get to know one another.

Fourth book in SUF’s Villa Rossa Series published

study in florenceSUF announces the publication of the fourth book in the Villa Rossa Series, Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588): The Painter-Prioress of Renaissance Florence, a collection of essays written by leading U.S. and Italian scholars and edited by Jonathan K. Nelson, coordinator of the SUF Art History Department.

Says Nelson, “Plautilla Nelli is the first female artist in Florence who is more to us than just a name. Few works survive, though this volume adds many to the list. Nelli is also one of the first European women we can identify with large-scale religious works. The gender and pious reputation of this Dominican nun surely added to the appeal of her paintings. Today Nelli’s innovate works and career indicate an important avenue for artistic expression and education for Renaissance women.”

Adds SUF Director Barbara Deimling, “I am extremely pleased with the Villa Rossa Series and find impressive the fact that we have published, in just two years, four volumes—an attestation to the extraordinary dedication of our faculty to new research in their fields. For this latest publication, I cannot thank enough Jane Fortune, President of the Florence Chapter of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, for her generous support in making this project possible.”

 

Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588):
The Painter-Prioress of Renaissance Florence
A collection of essays edited by Jonathan K. Nelson
Paperback: 212 pages
Distributor: Syracuse University Press
Publication date July 2008
ISBN: 88-95250-03-6