NEW FRONTIERS

I am through and through an art historian with my roots firmly in London; throughout my childhood my mother would regularly take me to the National Gallery, and it all led from there! My career path is also tied to the University of London federation, as my BA and MA were completed at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where I honed my lifelong interest in the Italian Renaissance. It was during my master’s that I started to focus on drawing and prints, and this specialism was consolidated in the following months as I was an editorial intern at Print Quarterly and subsequently the Bromberg Fellow at the British Museum. 

I was therefore very familiar with the Warburg Institute, and Bloomsbury in general, from day one of my PhD studies at the Warburg. I am now currently the Getty Paper Project Fellow in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, which is an 18-month position funded by the Getty’s initiative to support and train young curators of works on paper. 

Making art accessible 

One key factor that fascinates me about the study of art is the artists’ creative process. What the study of drawing provides is a direct insight into this process both through the preparatory studies that artists made, and the proximity to these objects that the nature of my work demands. I am privileged that I am constantly able to hold masterpieces in my hands in order to analyse factors such as the forms an artist delineated, the media that they chose, and the thoughts that they had as they were working.  

In terms of the curatorial field, the breadth of museum holdings such as that at the British Museum means that you are constantly having to apply this knowledge to a variety of contexts. For instance, in a single day I could deal with artworks created in 15th century Italy, 17th century Flanders and 20th century England! Another factor that I find both fascinating and interesting is the role of the curator in fostering the engagement of the wider public with art. This can be achieved through diverse means such as exhibitions, gallery talks and even the online database, but it is important to constantly think about how this information can be made accessible to a non-specialist audience.   

Bringing attention to an oft-overlooked subject

Earlier last year, I was fortunate to receive the Wolfgang Ratjen Award for my thesis Bartolomeo & Benedetto Montagna and the Role of the Graphic Arts in Vicenza, c.1480–1520. Given that the Award was initiated some 27 years ago, and considers scholars working from across the world researching any topic related to works on paper, this was naturally a great honour. As a condition of having won the Award, I undertook a three month research fellowship at the Zentralinstitut in Munich, which began in September 2021. 

Yet for me, the importance of this award is not simply in relation to my own research, but also to Venetian Renaissance drawings and prints more broadly. This topic has been overlooked because of historical biases towards drawing in Florence, and hence there remains much scholarship to be done on diverse topics and lesser-known artists working across the Veneto. The Ratjen Foundation’s decision to recognise the contribution that my thesis made to understanding artistic production through the prism of ‘disegno’ (design), in relation to an artistic workshop based in Vicenza, is therefore significant in drawing attention to the scope of the field. In turn, the fact that I have focused on the graphic oeuvre of another artist working in the Veneto, namely Lorenzo Lotto, during my time as a Fellow at the Zentralinstitut has provided further opportunity to emphasise how much innovative research can be done on the graphic arts of Venice and the Veneto.  

In May 2021, I helped organise a two-day online conference at the Warburg Institute: Venetian Disegno: New Frontiers, which drew attention to the importance that disegno, in all its manifestations, played in artistic practices across the Veneto between circa 1420 and 1620. My co-organiser Thomas Dalla Costa and I realised that we knew of many colleagues who were working on comparable aspects of Venetian disegno and that scholarship on the topic had developed significantly over the last few years. 

Thanks to the contributions of the Warburg staff, the presenters, and respondents, the conference was a resounding success with an exceptional (online) turnout. The papers presented and ensuing conversations made apparent both the novelty and breadth of scholarship on Venetian disegno and the interest in the topic. To these ends, we are now planning for a ‘follow-up’ session at the Renaissance Society of America conference which will be held in Dublin in 2022 (COVID allowing). In order to leave a more lasting legacy, we are planning to publish an anthology that develops directly from the conference and which we hope will become a point of reference for future research.

My links with the Warburg and beyond

Completing my PhD at the Warburg Institute has had incredible impact on my career, with its recognition certainly bolstered by the international renown of the library and the legacy that both Aby Warburg and alumni of the Warburg have had on art historical scholarship. The multidisciplinary approach to research has shaped how I consider art within broader culture and has ensured that I keep an open-minded approach to curatorial tasks and new projects. Finally, I have developed a great network of friends and colleagues through the many conversations that first took place (even if whispered) in the Warburg Library.

With the Warburg Renaissance redevelopment plans, I am optimistic that the Institute will reinstate its reputation as not only the pre-eminent centre for the study of art history, but also position it at the forefront of innovation in visual culture. The plans promise to make the Warburg Institute a vibrant centre within the busy London art scene, and I myself know that I will be regular visitor for the duration of my career.

What are my ambitions for the future? As is probably evident from what I done so far in my career, I enjoy pacing the boundary between the academic and curatorial disciplines as I do not see them as distinct. Research by curators on items held in their museum collections should be as rigorous as the scholarship done by academics, while those working in academia should place as much emphasis on close study of the artworks on which their scholarship focuses. 

To those ends, and in addition to my work at the British Museum, my short-term concerns include various scholarly projects such as editing the Venetian Disegno: New Frontiers volume and writing several articles focusing on Italian Renaissance prints and drawings, and pursuing a permanent curatorial position. Ultimately, I hope to number among a growing group of scholars and curators who challenge the perceived parameters of the two career paths by breaking down the boundaries between the disciplines.

Dr Genevieve Verdigel gained her PhD in 2020, after studying at the Warburg Institute, part of the University’s School of Advanced Study.