Research areas
My research, which focuses on art and architecture of southern Europe in the early modern period, is concerned with the roles of ritual, spectacle, and performance within early modern culture, in both religious and secular contexts, and how they inform our reading of the period’s major works of art, buildings, and spaces. My current research project, for which I was awarded the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, is titled 'Sacred Drama: Art, Faith and Performance in Borromeo's Milan'. This project centres on sensory experience, emotion and the performing body in relation to sacred images, multimedia environments and devotional practices, with a thematic focus on visual and textual narratives of the Passion. My first monograph, Andrea Pozzo and the Religious Theatre of the Seventeenth Century (Philadelphia: Saint Joseph's University Press 2019), examines the work of Jesuit artist Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709), highlighting the central role of theatrical scenography in his training, development and artistic career. Prior to joining the School of Art History at St Andrews I was Teaching Fellow in Renaissance and early modern/Baroque art and culture in the department of History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, where I completed my PhD in 2017. In addition to the Leverhulme Trust, my research has been supported by awards and grants from the Association for Art History and the Renaissance Society of America.