The fifth annual IAS/Kress lecture in Italy, jointly sponsored by the Italian Art Society with the support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, was held on 27 May 2014 at 5 pm in the Gipsoteca di Arte Antica of the Università di Pisa.
Dr. Jean Cadogan from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut presented “’Maravigliose istorie’: The Mural Decoration of the Camposanto in Pisa.” Dr. Cadogan brought a new approach to the frescoes, considering the work of Florentine painter Benozzo Gozzoli (ca. 1420-97) as a unique campaign that was affected by the changing civic function of Pisa’s communal burial ground known as the Camposanto in the fifteenth century. At this time, Pisa was dominated by Florence and was experiencing declining economic, social, and political conditions due to Florentine dominance. Dr. Cadogan’s work on the Camposanto forms part of a book manuscript in preparation entitled Art, Piety and Politics: Mural Painting in Central Italy 1390-1500.
The IAS will host its 2015 IAS/Kress lecture in Naples at the Università degli Studi di Napoli—Federico II. The deadline for applications from senior American scholars is 4 January 2015.