Founded in 1970 at the instigation of André Chastel, the Art History Department of the French Academy in Rome is responsible for the conservation, study and enhancement of the Academy’s collections, library and historical archives. It also focuses on art history research and support for fellows and residents who are art historians and restorers.
The current Head of the Department is Francesca Alberti.
Discover Francesca Alberti’s biography
Francesca Alberti is the Director of the Department of Art History at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, as well as professor of Art History at the University of Tours and the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance. Her research focuses on art and visual culture in the early modern period.
She is the author and co-editor of the volumes: La Peinture facétieuse:Du rire sacré de Corrège aux fables burlesques de Tintoret (Paris, 2016 – Prix Monseigneur Marcel Académie française); Rire en images à la Renaissance (Turnhout, 2018) and Penser l’étrangeté, L’histoire de l’art de la Renaissance italienne entre bizarrerie, extravagance et singularité (Rennes, 2012).
Francesca Alberti was a Fellow at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici (2014-2015), Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University (2016), grant holder of the Centre Allemand d’histoire de l’art à Paris (2013), as well as a member of the research council for the Fontainebleau Festival of Art History (2016 and 2021) and the Rendez-vous de l’Histoire in Blois (2020).
The research focus of the Department of Art History is the study of artistic relations between France and Italy from the Renaissance to the present day. In this context, it organises international art history colloquia in partnership with French and Italian institutions, which are regularly published by the Academy in the “Collection d’histoire de l’art” series.
The Department also supervises art history fellows during their period of residence, as well as the residents on the Daniel Arasse (eight doctoral students per year, in collaboration with the École française de Rome) and André Chastel (three researchers per year, in collaboration with the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris) fellowships.
Among of its mission is also the annual publication of Studiolo, a journal on art history, whose editorial board selects articles of high scientific quality each year.
As part of the conservation, study and development of its collections, library and ancient archives, the Academy is pleased to announce the online availability of its heritage collection, to discover since 2018 on the Base d’Antin. It allows you to consult the main information relating to the works in the Villa Medici’s vast collections: portraits of boarders, plaster prints, busts of directors, caricatures, etc.
