In her book on the Zuccari brothers, noted art historian Cristina Acidini Luchinat wondered about the “inexplicable presence of an Eastern man in a turban” among the “People of God” in the frescoed cupola of Florence cathedral. This paper will argue that the figure recalls Abdisho IV of Gazarta, the Chaldean patriarch of Mosul who had visited Rome in 1565.

Speaker:

Dr Cristelle Baskins is Associate Professor Emerita, Tufts University, where she taught courses in Italian Renaissance Art History from 1997 to 2020. Her articles on Turkmens, Syrian Christians, Armenians, and Baroque travelers have appeared in Muqarnas, Renaissance Studies, the Journal for the Society of Armenian Studies, Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, and the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. She held fellowships including a Fulbright-Hayes to Italy, a J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship, an Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Newhouse Center Fellowship at Wellesley College. Her book titled, Hafsids and Habsburgs in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Facing Tunis, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022.

Chairperson:

Dr Leah Clark Kellogg College Arts Fellow and Associate Professor of Art History, University of Oxford

This event is free and open to all.

Refreshments will be served from 17:00. The talk will begin at 17:30, followed by a drinks reception at 18:30.