Expertise: Italian Renaissance Art

Specialization
Classical and Christian Iconography
Conservation and Restoration
Neo-Platonism in Renaissance Art
Leonardo da Vinci

Current Research Interests
St. Augustine's Influence on Medieval and Renaissance art
Influence of Classical literature and imagery in Italian Renaissance
Ancient Medical Texts and Leonardo da Vinci
Classical Iconography on the Portland Vase

Courses Currently Taught
Survey: Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture
High Renaissance Painting in Venice
High Renaissance Painting in Rome and Florence
Sculpture in Italian Renaissance
Classical Prototypes in Renaissance

Recent Seminars (Selected)
Myths and Allegories in Renaissance Art
Recent Conservation Projects - Renaissance Art
Italian Renaissance Iconographical Studies
The Philosophy of Landscape in Italian Renaissance Painting
Venetian Painting as the "Unique"

Selected Publications
"Saint Augustine and Hermes Trismegistus on Demonolgy and the Condemnation of Free-Standing Statues", in Studia Patristica, "The Proceedings of the 2003 Oxford University Patristics Conference", Peeters, Leuven Publ., 2006.  A Spanish translation will appear in AUGUSTINUS, Madrid, 2007.

"Pasquier Le Moyne's Largant miroir de grace: Counsel for the Ladies and Censure for the Nobles in the Court of Francis I (1520)", in the International Journal of the Humanities, Vol. 3, 2005 [Cambridge University Conference]

"Leonardo da Vinci and the Printed Ancient Medical Texts: History and Influence" in The Journal of the Washington [DC] Academy of Sciences, Winter 2004/5.  Also on the website of the Academy

"The Spiritual Triumph of Trompe L'Oeil Illusionism Over Reality in Architectural Wall Paintings: The Etruscan Tomb of the Leopards and the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii", in Analecta Husserliana #87, 2005. Kluwer Academic Published and Springer, The Netherlands

"Michelangelo's Christian Neoplatonic Aesthetic of Beauty in his Early Oeuvre: The Nuditas Virtualis Images", in Concepts of Beauty in Renaissance Art, London, Ashgate Publ., 1998

"El Greco's Religious Oeuvre in Spain: Reflections of Titian's Venetian Light and Michelangelo's Figura Serpentinata", in Proceedings of the International Symposium: El Greco in Italy and Italian Art, by the El Greco Centre of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, University of Crete, 1995

The "Primavera" of Sandro Botticelli: A Neoplatonic Interpretation, Bern: Peter Lang Publ., 1993