One of my current research projects relates to the CASVA-sponsored session “Remembering the Middle Ages in Early Modern Italy,” which I co-organized for the annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America, held in Washington in March 2012. My paper for the panel considered the role of monumental medieval stone column crosses in Bologna, arguing that they were crucial to the construction and ultimate success of the civic cult of Saint Petronius in that city during the Renaissance. In addition to expanding this material for publication, I am working on a new book project focusing on the prehistory, aesthetics, and typology of the miraculous images in medieval Bologna that were subsequently reenshrined within new settings. I look forward to advancing this research in the coming year as an Ahmanson Fellow of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
Members' Research Report Archive
Medieval Images in the Early Modern City
Jessica N. Richardson, Research Associate, 2011–2012
Cross of Saints Hermes, Aggeus, and Caius, Santi Vitale e Agricola in Arena, Bologna, eleventh/twelfth century. Author photograph