Alessia Attanasio

• MA in History of Art (University of Florence)
• MA in Advertising and Editorial Design (Italian Academy of Visual Communication, Naples)
• MA in Didactic/Pedagogical, psychological, and anthropological methodology, theory and methods of execution (University of Reggio Calabria)
• BA in Cultural Heritage Administration (University of Naples Federico II)

I specialise in Baroque Neapolitan Art, with a particular focus on the enduring artistic bond between England and Italy since the Grand Tour, celebrating the ability of art to transcend geographical borders. I also have a keen interest in nineteenth Neapolitan and European art, and in Museum and Curatorial Studies.

I collaborated with Italian and English museums as a museum and curatorial assistant and as a museum educator since I started my first artistic studies.

• Semester 2: Debates and Methods – convenor Deniz Sözen, Department of Art History and Visual Studies, University of Birmingham

My research will investigate the history of collecting Baroque Neapolitan art in England between 1680 and 1800, when a considerable number of English artists and collectors came to Naples during the Grand Tour. The ties which have bound British artists, collectors and travelers to Italy and Italian art have been almost continuous since the mid-seventeenth century, intensifying over the following centuries, as the figure of the art dealer came to be defined in a modern sense.

Despite the high academic interest, as evidenced by ongoing research (e.g., Spinosa, 2021), there are no publications offering an overarching thesis supported by an illustrated database. My database will provide the first comprehensive view of Neapolitan paintings still admired today across England in private and public collections, focusing on English country-houses (1680-1820).