Professor Guido Rebecchini

Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern Art

Having read History of Art at the Universit脿 degli Studi di Roma 鈥淟a Sapienza鈥, I then moved to the Universit脿 degli Studi di Siena, where I was awarded a MA degree on the 鈥楾radizione dell鈥橝ntico nel Medioevo e nel Rinascimento鈥. In 2000, I have completed my PhD at the Warburg Institute and have subsequently taught at the Universit脿 di Siena (2001-2009) and at the study-abroad centres in Florence of New York University and Syracuse University听 (2010-2012). In September 2013, I have joined the Courtauld Institute, where I am now Professor in Renaissance and Early Modern Art. I have been Associate Dean for Students (2019-2021) and am currently Head of the Research Degree.

In my research, I have pursued three main strands: the first focuses on the court of Mantua. Using a wealth of unpublished documents, including correspondence, contracts and inventories, my studies have shed light on previously unexplored aspects of the Gonzaga patronage and collecting, and on the artistic interests of the Mantuan elites. Moreover, I have published extensively on Giulio Romano and especially on his role as designer of sculpture and silverware.

The second strand of my research focuses on Medicean Florence. In particular, I have contributed to deconstruct the sixteenth-century historiography on the Medici family unveiling internal fractures and how art was used to forge a narrative of dynastic and political legitimacy. My most recent article in this area was published in I Tatti Studies and investigates the fraught transmission of the Medici inheritance, which I interpret as a means of crafting a dynastic identity and displaying political power.

Finally, the third strand of my research examines on the role played by Pope Paull III Farnese in the renewal of Rome after the devastating Sack of 1527. My study explores the multi-layered strategies adopted by the pope to refashion a city, including ephemeral and permanent interventions in the urban fabric.听Currently, I am developing a new long-term project on the Sack of Rome of 1527, which will culminate in a major exhibition in Rome in 2027.

During the academic year 2025/26, I will be on research leave thanks to a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship. During this year, I will be a Guest Scholar at the Bibliotheca Hertziana and a Research Fellow at the British School at Rome.

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Teaching 2023-25

  • MA History听of Art:听Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo (with Dr Irene Brooke, and Dr Barbara Furlotti)

Teaching 2022-23

  • MA History听of Art:听Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo (with听Dr Scott Nethersole, Dr Irene Brooke, and Dr Barbara Furlotti)
  • BA1 Varieties of Renaissance Art

Teaching 2021-22

  • MA History听of Art:听Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo (with听Dr Scott Nethersole, Dr Irene Brooke, and Dr Barbara Furlotti)
  • BA3 Special Option: Inventing Michelangelo: Disegno, Painting, Sculpture and the Myth of the Artist

Teaching 2020-21

  • MA History听of Art:听Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo (with听Dr Scott Nethersole, Dr Irene Brooke, and Dr Barbara Furlotti)
  • BA3 Special Option: Inventing Michelangelo: Disegno, Painting, Sculpture and the Myth of the Artist

Teaching 2019-20

  • MA History听of Art:听Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo (with听Dr Scott Nethersole,听Dr Barbara Furlotti听and听Dr Irene Brooke
  • BA3 Special Option: Inventing Michelangelo: Disegno, Painting, Sculpture and the Myth of the Artist

Teaching 2018-19

Teaching 2017-18

Teaching 2016-17

  • BA2 Constellations: Questioning the Italian Renaissance:听Art in Italy from 1470 to 1527 (with听)
  • BA3 Special Option: Inventing Michelangelo: Disegno, Painting, Sculpture and the Myth of the Artist
  • MA History听of Art:听Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo (with听,听听and听)

PhD Supervision

Current

  • Daniel Lowe, Carit脿, Piet脿, Vergogna: Picturing Poverty in Emilian Art, 1590-1660
  • Emma Iadanza, The Pazzi Ascendancy: Patronage, Network, and Identity of a Florentine Family, ca. 1460-1520
  • Alison Braybrooks, Stucco sculpture in Rome 1590-1620
  • Alexis Nanavaty, 鈥淟a Fortuna dell鈥檃rtista鈥: Battista Zelotti as artist and collaborator at the Palladian Villas
  • Tanya Klowden (co-supervised with Dr Stephen Whiteman), Interconnected Identities: Alonso S谩nchez Coello, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Portraiture in the Court of Philip II of Spain

Submitted

  • Julia van Zandvoort, An International Fabric: Sixteenth-century Networks of Tapestry Production and Trade between Flanders and Italy, the case of the Van der Molen (1538-1544)
  • Jasmine Clark, Anticamente moderni e modernamente antichi: Thinking on Paper: The Practice, Theory and Agency of Silverware Design for the Early Sixteenth-Century Italian Courts (Part-Time)

Completed

  • Marco Mansi (co-supervised with Dr Ketty Gottardo), Florentine Drawing Books (ca. 1500鈥1600): Shaping a Landscape Tradition (2025)
  • Anna Chiara Giusa, The Politics of Style: Artistic 鈥楤ilingualism鈥 in Messina During the First Half of the Sixteenth Century (2024)
  • Adriana Concin, The Habsburg-Medici Wedding of 1565: Art, Diplomacy and Display听(2021)
  • , Decorating Chapels: Networks of Family Patronage in Late Fifteenth-Century Bologna. Between Private Piety and Political Self-definition (co-supervised with Prof. Nicolas Bock – Universit茅 de Lausanne) (2020)
  • , Nicoletto da Modena and the Centres of Early Italian Print Production 1490-1530 (co-supervised with Dr Scott Nethersole) (2019)
  • , Symbolic images and the Production of Knowledge: Achille Bocchi, Ulisse Aldrovandi and Academic Networks in Sixteenth-Century Bologna听(2018)

Research interests

  • Sixteenth-century Italian art, politics and urbanism, especially in Rome
  • Courtly art and culture, with a focus on Mantua
  • Medicean Florence
  • Giulio Romano
  • History of collecting and antiquarian studies
  • Drawing, design, disegno
  • Techniques and materials

Recent publications

Giulio Romano. La forza delle cose, exh. cat., eds. B. Furlotti and G. Rebecchini with the collaboration of A. Geremicca, Mantua, Palazzo Te, 8 October 2022-8 January 2023, Venice, Marsilio, 2022.

The Art of Experiment: Parmigianino at the Courtauld, exh. cat., eds. K. Gottardo and G. Rebecchini, London, Paul Holberton Publishing, 2022.

The Art of Experiment: Parmigianino at The Courtauld

The Rome of Paul III (1534-1549): Art Ritual and Urban Renewal, Turnhout, Harvey Miller Publishing, 2020.

http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9781912554430-1

Giulio Romano: Art and Desire, exhibition catalogue, eds. Barbara Furlotti, Guido Rebecchini and Linda Wolk-Simon, Mantua, Palazzo Te, 6 October 2019-6 January 2020, Milan, Electa, 2019. Italian edition:听Giulio Romano. Arte e desiderio, Milan, Electa, 2019.

Books, essays, articles and reviews

Mantua, collecting and Giulio Romano

  • 鈥淎 Bronze Roundel for the Mantuan Court: Towards an Oeuvre of Gian Marco Cavalli鈥, The Burlington Magazine, CLXIII, September 2021, pp. 798-805.
  • 鈥淯n鈥檃mica di Isabella d鈥橢ste: Margherita Cantelmi, il suo studiolo e il monastero di Santa Maria della Presentazione al Tempio鈥, in Itinera chartarum. 150 anni dell鈥橝rchivio di Stato di Mantova. Saggi in onore di Daniela Ferrari, eds. Roberta Piccinelli, Deanna Shemek, Luisa Onesta Tamassia, Milan, Silvana editoriale, 2019, pp. 343-347.
  • 鈥淐harles I鈥檚 Visit to Madrid鈥, in Charles I: King and Collector, exh. cat., eds. Per Rumberg and Desmond Shawe-Taylor, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2018, 50-53.
  • Co-authored with Barbara Furlotti (50%) 鈥溾橰are and Unique in This World鈥: Mantegna鈥檚 鈥楾riumph鈥 and the Gonzaga Collection鈥, in Charles I: King and Collector, exh. cat., eds. Per Rumberg and Desmond Shawe-Taylor, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2018, 54-59.
  • 鈥淎gostino Veneziano鈥檚 Suite of Three Women with Ancient Vases鈥,听Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 92, 2016, 2, special issue:听Investigating Marcantonio Raimondi, ed.听E. Wouk, pp. 129-144.
  • Guido Rebecchini and Edward Wouk, 鈥Biographical Notes on Marcantonio Raimondi and the publisher Il Baviera鈥, Edward Wouk (ed.),听Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael and the Image Multiplied, exhib. cat., Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2016, pp. 12-15.
  • Evidence: Inventories鈥, in听The Display of Art in the Long Renaissance, ed. G. Feigenbaum, Los Angeles, Getty Publications, 2014, pp. 27-28.
  • 鈥楶ietro Bembo e Baldassarre Castiglione: teorici dell鈥檃rte e collezionisti鈥, in听Pietro Bembo e le arti, conference proceedings, eds. G. Beltramini, H. Burns and D. Gasparotto, Venice, Marsilio, 2013, pp. 257-266.
  • 鈥楪iulio Romano e la produzione di argenti per Ferrante ed Ercole Gonzaga鈥, in听Prospettiva, 146, 2012, pp. 32-43.
  • 鈥楲e biblioteche di Battista Fiera e Giovan Benedetto Lampridio鈥,听Civilt脿 mantovana, 134, 2012, special issue: Scritti in memoria di Clifford Malcolm Brown, eds P. Tosetti Grandi and A.M. Lorenzoni, Mantua, Il Bulino, 2012, pp. 109-124.
  • 鈥楶ortraits by Objects. Three 鈥楽tudioli鈥 in Sixteenth-Century Mantua鈥, in听Mantova e il Rinascimento italiano: saggi in onore di David S. Chambers, eds P. Jackson and G. Rebecchini, Mantua, Sometti, 2011, pp. 77-94.
  • (with Dr Barbara Furlotti),听The Art and Architecture of Mantua. Eight Centuries of Patronage and Collecting, London, Thames and Hudson, 2008. (Other editions: Il听Rinascimento a Mantova, Florence, Giunti, 2008;听The Art of Mantua. Art and Patronage in the Renaissance, Los Angeles, Getty Publications, 2008; L鈥橝rt 脿 Mantoue, Paris, Hazan, 2008).
  • 鈥業 committenti dell鈥橝ntico tra modelli romani e classicismo lombardo鈥, in听Bonacolsi l鈥橝ntico. Uno scultore nella Mantova di Andrea Mantegna e di Isabella d鈥橢ste, exhib. cat., eds D. Gasparotto and F. Trevisani, Milan, Electa, 2008, pp. 36-43.
  • 鈥楺ualche precisazione e un punto fermo per Ippolito Costa (1506-1535)鈥,听Prospettiva, 128, 2007, pp. 58-61.
  • 鈥楽culture e scultori nella Mantova di Giulio Romano. 2. Giovan Battista Scultori e il monumento di Girolamo Andreasi (con una precisazione per Prospero Clemente)鈥,听Prospettiva, 110-111, 2003, pp. 130-139.
  • 鈥淪ome Aspects of Cardinal Sigismondo Gonzaga鈥檚 Collections鈥,听The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 66, 2003, pp. 289-296.
  • Private Collectors in Mantua.听1500-1630, Rome, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2002.
  • 鈥楽culture e scultori nella Mantova di Giulio Romano. 1. Bernardino Germani e il sepolcro di Pietro Strozzi (con il cognome di Giovan Battista Scultori)鈥,听Prospettiva, 108, 2002, pp. 65-79.
  • 鈥楨xchanges of Works of Art at the Court of Federico II Gonzaga with an Appendix on Flemish Art鈥, special issue: Art and Culture in Renaissance Mantua, ed. Molly Bourne,听Renaissance Studies, 16, 2002, pp. 381-391.
  • 鈥楲a corte e la citt脿. Scambi e interferenze tra collezionisti privati mantovani e i Gonzaga鈥,in听Gonzaga. La Celeste Galeria. Le raccolte, exhib. cat., ed. R. Morselli, Milan 2002, pp. 620-642.
  • 鈥楩urther Evidence on the Books of Baldassarre Castiglione鈥,听Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 63, 2000, pp. 271-276.
  • 鈥楾he Book Collection and Other Possessions of Baldassarre Castiglione鈥,听Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 61, 1998, pp. 17-52.
  • 鈥楥astiglione and Erasmus. Towards a Reconciliation?鈥,听Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 61, 1998, pp. 258-260.
  • 鈥楴ew Light on Two 鈥淰enuses鈥 by Correggio鈥,听Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 60, 1997, pp. 272-275.
  • 鈥楾iziano e Mantova: la Cena in Emmaus per Nicola Maffei鈥,听Venezia Cinquecento, 10, 1995, pp. 41-68.

Florence and the Medici

  • 鈥淒ynastic Conflicts and European Politics in the Transmission of the Medici Inheritance鈥, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, XXV, 1, 2022, pp. 133-165.
  • 鈥楲es d茅buts de Jean Du Bellay 脿 Rome, la cour d鈥橦ippolyte de M茅dicis et le r么le de Giovan francesco Valier鈥, in听Le cardinal Jean Du Bellay . Diplomatie et culture dans l鈥橢urope de la Renaissance, eds. C. Michon and L. Petris, (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2014) pp. 269-281.
  • 鈥楲a politica dello stile: il giovane Vasari e la cerchia di Ippolito de鈥 Medici鈥, in听Giorgio Vasari e il cantiere delle Vite del 1550, conference proceedings, eds. B. Agosti and S. Ginzburg, (Venice: Marsilio, 2013), pp. 13-27.
  • 鈥楤eyond Florence鈥檚 walls. A List of Evaluations of Buildings to Be Demolished in 1529-1530鈥,听Getty Research Journal, 3, 2011, pp. 165-170.
  • 芦Un altro Lorenzo禄. Il cardinale Ippolito de鈥 Medici tra Firenze e Roma听(1510-1535), Venice, Marsilio, 2010.
  • Le ville dei Medici da Firenze a Roma, Rome, Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, 2008.
  • 鈥楩onti mantovane sul conflitto fra Alessandro de鈥 Medici e i fuoriusciti fiorentini durante la visita a Napoli di Carlo V nel 1536鈥,听Archivio Storico Italiano, 577, 1999, pp. 517-528.

Rome, visual culture and urbanism

  • 鈥淧aolo III e l鈥檕fficina delle arti a Roma鈥, in I Farnese. Architettura, arte, potere, exhib. cat., ed. Simone Verde, Milan, Electa, 2022, pp. 48-53.
  • 鈥淟鈥檈ntr茅e triomphale de Paul III 脿 Rome en 1538. Politique, identit茅 et r茅novation urbaine鈥, in La Cour en f锚te dans l鈥橢urope des Valois, eds. Oriane Beaufils and Luisa Capodieci, Tours, Presses universitaires Fran莽ois-Rabelais, 2022, pp. 34-36.
  • 鈥楽pace, Memory and Conflict in Sixteenth-Century Rome鈥, I听Tatti Studies: Studies in The Italian Renaissance, special issue: Street Life, Street Culture, eds. G. Clarke and F. Nevola, 16, 1-2, 2013, pp. 153-179.
  • 鈥楩or Pleasure and for Entertainment: A Rustic Fountain in Sixteenth-Century Rome and a Project by Giovanni Mangone鈥, in听Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, eds M. Isra毛ls and L.A. Waldman, Milan, Officina Libraria, 2013, pp. 463-473.
  • 鈥楳ichelangelo e le mura di Roma鈥, in听Michelangelo architetto a Roma disegni della Casa Buonarroti di Firenze, exhib. cat., eds M. Mussolin and P. Ragionieri, Cinisello Balsamo (Mi), Silvana editoriale, 2009, pp. 106-110.
  • (Co-edited with Fabrizio Nevola),听Urban History, 37, 2010, 1, special issue: Locating Communities in the Early Modern Italian City.
  • 鈥楢fter the Medici: The New Rome of Pope Paul III Farnese鈥,听I Tatti Studies, 11, 2008, pp. 147-200.
  • 鈥楪iovan Francesco Arrivabene a Roma nel 1550. Una nuova descrizione del giardino del cardinale Federico Cesi鈥,听Pegasus. Berliner Beitr盲ge zum Nachleben der Antike (Bulletin of the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, Humboldt-Universit盲t zu Berlin), 2, 2000, pp. 41-60.

Citations