The Departments of History of Art and Italian Studies are very happy to announce the latest addition to our faculty: Assistant Professor Henrike Christiane Lange, appointed in the field of Renaissance/Early Modern Visual Culture in the Mediterranean World. Henrike earned her Magister Artium at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and received her doctorate at Yale University. In spring 2015 she filed her dissertation entitled “Relief Effects: Giotto’s Triumph.” Following the example of Michael Baxandall, Henrike Lange bravely addresses the major changes at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. She detects a meaningful formal shift that has major implications for questions of matter and illusion, for the framing and staging of the scenes, and for the interaction with the beholder. All of these transformations converge in the specific visual effects of relief. 

Lange sees the relief at the center of Renaissance artistic practice and visual thinking about history, power, and meaning. Her dissertation addresses the most famous frescoes in Western art, Giotto’s Arena Chapel in Padua, as it plays with the imitation of actual relief sculpture. Probing the ancient Roman roots of Giotto’s project, Henrike ... [show more]

Assistant Professor of Renaissance/Early Modern Visual Culture in the Mediterranean world (tenure-track). Appointment effective July 1, 2015; candidates must have Ph.D. dissertation or equivalent underway at time of application. The Departments seek a specialist within the period (approx. 1300-1600) with strong interdisciplinary and/or comparative interests extending geographically beyond the boundaries of the Italian peninsula and the ability to contribute to the curricula and research profiles of both History of Art and Italian Studies. Areas of interest might include the relations between visual, verbal and material culture; travel studies; architectural history; cultural exchange between Europe and the East and/or Africa, or the New World. Teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels is expected, including the ability to teach in the Italian language where relevant.  Full text of ad and instructions on how to apply can be found here.