About
Dr. Lisot-Nelson specializes in Renaissance and Baroque art history, and also teaches the history of women in art, ancient Greek, Roman, early Christian, Medieval, Latin American Colonial and Islamic art. Her research interests include aesthetics and post-migration theory, including images representing marginalized populations such as illegitimate children, Ebrei italiani, refugees, slaves and servants.
Prior to coming to UTT in 2013, Dr. Lisot-Nelson was a visiting assistant professor with the University of Dallas at their Rome campus. Her doctoral dissertation on Federico Barocci was under the direction of Deborah Stott at University of Texas, Dallas, and her master’s thesis was chaired by Claire Farago at University of Colorado, Boulder.
Education
Ph.D. in Humanities /Aesthetic Studies / Art History – 2009
University of Texas at Dallas
Specialization: Italian Renaissance & Baroque Art History
Dissertation: “Passion, Penance and Mystical Union: Early Modern Catholic Polemics
in the Religious Paintings of Federico Barocci,” Chair: Dr. Deborah Stott
M.A. in Fine Arts / Art History – 1996
University of Colorado, Boulder
Specialization: Italian Renaissance & Baroque Art History, Minor: Islamic Art
Thesis: “Light, Color and Mystical Vision: The Art of Federico Barocci,”
Chair: Dr. Claire Farago.
CU Graduate Summer Study Abroad Program in Rome & Florence, Italy
B.F.A. in Fine Arts / Studio Arts – 1985
University of Colorado, Boulder
Specialization: Painting and Printmaking
University of Paris, Sorbonne – 1984
Semester abroad program in France: art and culture
Publications
Recent publications include:
“Refugees of War: Federico Barocci’s Aeneas Fleeing Troy, Classical Antecedents to Contemporary Issues” in Konsthistorisk Tidskrift / Journal of Art History, Vol. 89, Issue 1 (2020): 33-56, which examines Federico Barocci’s paintings and Vergil’s Aeneid (29-19 BCE) as visual and literary antecedents that describe the reciprocal responsibilities of xenia (hospitality to the stranger), and therefore offer informed models of discourse for the contemporary European refugee crisis;
“Sculpting and Human Rights: An Exploration of Fasasi Abeedeen Tunde’s Works in Italy” in The Art of Human Rights: Commingling Art, Human Rights and the Law in Africa, eds. Romola Adeola and Frans Viljoen, Springer Publishing, 2020, exploring the works by a Nigerian refugee sculptor working in Italy;
“Pope Urban VIII (1568-1644 CE) at St. Peter’s Basilica, Piazza Barberini and Palazzo Barberini,” in People and Places of the Roman Past, ed. Peter Hatlie, 147-156. ARC Humanities Press, 2019, a text for professors teaching study abroad programs in Rome;
“Bleeding Bodies and Bondage: Signifiers of Illegitimacy in Ghirlandaio’s Adoration of the Magi and Andrea della Robbia’s Tondi at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence,” in Monsters and Borders in the Early Modern Imagination, eds. Jana L Byars and Hans Broedel, Routledge Press, 2018, this chapter explores depictions of children born out of wedlock, located in a fifteenth-century Florentine foundling hospital. The images suggest that the infants require institutional boundaries for their own protection, but also so as not to threaten “moral’ society with the product of its own concupiscence.
Projects
Current projects include: an article on Raphael’s La Fornarina and La Donna Velata as early Orientalist images; a new interpretation of Raphael’s Transfiguration in the context of polemics between Pope Leo X and Martin Luther over papal authority and faith; and an exploration of images of servants in the margins of Early Modern paintings.
She is also seeking funding opportunities to conduct further research for a book: Raphael’s Jews: Identity and Context.
Upcoming Talks and Conferences
Because of the cancellation of the Renaissance Society Meeting in Philadelphia (2020), I am considering whether I will be presenting my paper, “Margins to the Middle: Early Modern Images of Servants in Visitation Paintings,” which was originally scheduled to be presented in Philly, at RSA in Dublin. Memberships
Dr. Lisot-Nelson is a member of the Medici Digital Archive Project community, the Italian Art Society, Sixteenth Century Studies Society, Renaissance Society of America, College Art Association, and the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender.
