Lisa Pieraccini

Job title: 
Continuing Lecturer
Department: 
The Material Culture of the Ancient Mediterranean, Etruscan and Roman Art
Bio/CV: 

Lisa C. Pieraccini works on the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean with special emphasis on ancient Italy (namely, the Etruscans and Romans). She lived in Italy for many years where she taught and conducted research in Rome and southern Etruria. Her interests include ancient Mediterranean artistic exchange, craft connectivity, funeral art and ritual as well as decolonization and indigeneity. She also works on reception studies and the shifting constructs of identity in the visual programs of ancient and neoclassical monuments. Dr. Pieraccini has published a variety of articles and book chapters on a wide range of subject matter including Etruscan wall painting, funerary rituals, the Etruscan contextualization of Greek myth, the Grand Tour, collection histories, issues of indigeneity, and the curious re-use of ancient art in modern media.

Dr. Pieraccini is the Program Coordinator for the Del Chiaro Center for the Study of Ancient Italy, which she founded (2015) along with the Mario Del Chiaro Annual Lecture Series (2011).  She is co-editor of the series Cities and Communities of the Etruscans (with Nancy de Grummond) published by Texas University Press; co-editor of the book, Material Connections, Artistic Exchange: The Case of Etruria and Anatolia (2023) (with Elizabeth Baughan) published by Cambridge University Press; co-editor of the volume, Consumption, Ritual, Art and Society: Interpretive Approaches and Recent Discoveries of Food and Drink in Etruria (2023) (with Laurel Taylor) published by Brepols and consulting editor of the journal Etruscan and Italic Studies. She is an elected member of the Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici in Florence, Italy. Before joining the History of Art Department, Dr. Pieraccini taught for the Classics Department and Italian Studies at UC Berkeley, Stanford University as well as Temple University in Rome. 

Pieraccini is the recipient of the 2023 United States Capitol Historical Society Fellowship and will be conducting research on “Neoclassical Depictions of Native American Women and Early American Identity at the US Capitol." Current projects include a comprehensive study of the Etruscan artifacts at the Phoebe Hearst Museum at UC Berkeley where she teaches a seminar focusing on the largely unpublished collection. Pieraccini's courses include Decolonizing Ancient Mediterranean Art, Revisiting Reception: Old and New World Monuments and Digital Humanities, Cultural Heritage and Art History.

Select publications

2018 “An Egyptian Tomb, an Etruscan Inscription and the Funerary Monument of an American Civil War Officer,” in An Etruscan Affair: The Impact of Early Etruscan Discoveries on European Culture, ed., J. Swaddling. The British Museum, 188-194.

2018 “Collecting Etruscans for California: The Story of Philanthropist, Phoebe A. Hearst and Archaeologist, Alfred Emerson,” in Etruscans in North America – Archaeological Institute of America Selected Papers on Ancient Art, eds., by A. Carpino and R. De Puma. Archaeological Institute of America, 45-58.

2016 “Sacred Serpent Symbols: The Bearded Snakes of Etruria,” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections Vol. 10: 2016, 92-102.

2016 “Etruscan Wall Painting: Insights, Innovations and Legacy,” in The Companion to the Etruscans, eds., S. Bell and A. Carpino, Wiley-Blackwell, 247-260.

2014 and Mario Del Chiaro, “Greek in Subject Matter, Etruscan by Design: Alcestis and Admetus on an Etruscan Red-figure Krater.” In The Regional Production of Red-figure Pottery: Greece, Magna Graecia and Etruria, edited by S. Schierup. Copenhagen, 304-310.

2014 “Un brasero de Berkeley et d’autres vases à engobe rouge cérétains,” in Les Potiers d’Etrurie et Leur Monde: contacts, echanges, transferts, eds., L. Ambrosini and V. Jolivet. Melanges de l’Ecole francaise de Rome, 201-207.

2013 “L’inafferrabile uovo etrusco,” in Mediterranea: Studi e ricerche a Tarquinia e in Etruria: simposio internazionale in ricordo di Francesca R. Serra Ridgway, ed. M. D. Gentilli. Rome, 105-125.

2011 “The Wonders of Wine and Ritual in Etruria,” in The Archaeology of Sanctuaries and Ritual in EtruriaJRA supplement, eds. N.T. de Grummond and I. Edlund-Berry, 127-137. 

Degrees

Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara

Contact

Office Hours: Spring 2024

Tuesdays: 2:00-3:00pm by appointment.

book cover
book cover